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MAGLAJ
If you travel alongside the Bosna River, at some point you will arrive in Maglaj, a city on the river banks in the heart of BiH. In 2008 there will be 600 years since Maglaj was mentioned in written documents for the first time. It was in the Ugar’s King Sigsmund Decree “SUB CASTRO NOSTRO MAGLAY”, “Under our Maglaj fortress” dating September 18, 1408.
A motor way M-17 and a railway Ploce-Bosanski Samac pass through Maglaj.
Prior to the Dayton Peace Agreement Maglaj municipality spread over 385 km2 but once the Zepce municipality was established through the High Representative Decision the surface area decreased to 260 km2.
According to the last census taken in 1991 there were 43 294 inhabitants in Maglaj municipality. The municipality was recognizable as “Small Bosnia” because the ethnical structure was identical to the structure of ethnic communities in Bosnia.
The war devastations have left a strong mark in this area; 73 % of housing units were destroyed (around 5300 units).
There are around 200 registered businesses; 43.5 % of businesses are related to trade, 40.5 are dealing with production and services, 5.5 % are related to hospitality services and 10.5 % are related to traffic activities. There are approximately 330 shops in the municipality.
Maglaj was always associated with company “Natron” – a paper and celluloses production giant. The privatization of the Natron Company was performed in 2004. The Turkish investment group “Hyat” became the majority share holder and there are tendencies to make it capable to cover the same market as it did in former Yugolavia.
There are three primary schools, “First primary school”, Primary school “Maglaj”, Primary school “Novi Seher” and two high schools in the municipality.
There are some valuable monuments of the cultural heritage of the area. There is a Mosque covered in lead and well known as “Kursumlija”, built in the second part of the 16th century by Jusuf pasa Kalavun. The commission for preservation of national monuments has included this Mosque on the list of 12 national legacy monuments in BiH. The sanctuary of Leopold Mandic placed on the Catholic Church St. Ante Padovanski from 1919 was opened in 1979. The Orthodox Church of St. Ilija the Prophet was built in 1909 and reconstruction works are undergoing.
There are various citizens associations in Maglaj dealing with issues like ecology, youth, children who need special care, women, culture etc., bringing together different social categories. Total number of registered associations in Maglaj is 40, 25 of which are citizens associations and 15 are sport clubs. Local governance in Maglaj has provided office spaces for many NGOs active in the municipality, so it can be said that they were not faced with problems as some other NGOs in other municipalities working with MDP.
There are 22 local communities (MZ) in the Maglaj municipality. The communication between the local communities and local governance was significantly improved during the mandate of a previous Mayor. A modern information system was introduced with support of MDP and it will certainly improve the connections between field offices, registries respectively with the main office in local governance building.
There is a joint cross entity project for waste management covering municipalities Doboj, Doboj Jug, Usora. Maglaj and Petrovo and it is in the planning phase.
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