Question: Hello, Lyn. I come from Croatia. I would like to ask, how is it possible for a poor country like Croatia or Bosnia, to create credit for such a big infrastructure project?

LaRouche: Do it as a European project. What we need to do, is, essentially, create a new monetary system. The function of the new monetary system is to have a regulated, fixed-exchange rate system. That's what the first requirement is. Now, we could have an approximation of that in Europe. If things had gone better in Western Europe, with the Balkan situation, we could have probably had something like that, as a European venture. Unfortunately, the Maastricht agreement, the present European Union don't allow this to be done, as long as they continue in power.

But, what we should have, now, given the destruction which had occurred in the so-called "Balkan Wars," which started right after the United States pulled out of the Desert Storm war, is, large-scale reconstruction is required--as in Croatia, for example. Now, the first requirement, of course, is large-scale infrastructure: transportation, power generation and distribution, water management, education, health care; that sort of thing. So therefore, there should be long-term credit, at interest rates, borrowing costs, not in excess of 1-2% per year, for these projects.

The projects, of course, should employ to the largest degree, local labor. This should be a stimulant to the local business economy, and to the general income of the area. And, will give them--say Croatia, in particular--give them the ability to raise the level of income, productivity, and so forth to a level, that all these debts will be easily rolled over, in time, and paid ultimately. So, we're talking about 25- to 50-year loans, for long-term credit, for high-priority, major infrastructure projects. For example: The whole area, from the Danube south, toward the Black Sea, toward the Aegean and so forth, and toward the Adriatic, is one area, which has an integrated characteristic. It looks like a lot of mountains and a lot of other things, but it actually has certain economic characteristics, when you combine the idea of transportation, production, agriculture, industry together.

And therefore, if it's approached as an integrated area of cooperating nations, this should be a very sound project, very sound investment for the long term. The way we do this, as part of what we had originally in the European Triangle/Eurasian Land-Bridge programs which we had can be done. And they need to be done!

For example: France, Germany, Italy, and so forth, need markets. They need to expand. Therefore, whatever they give, in terms of long-term credit, to the Balkan countries, helps these countries in the northern part of Europe, to get out of their mess! Therefore, the projects are beneficial--immediately--to both parties: those who are lending, and those who are borrowing.

And that's what a good system should be. There's no reason we can't have such a system; that is, there's no objective reason. We have to get the will to do it. We have to make people conscious of the possibility of doing it. And, if they're conscious enough of the possibility of doing it, they'll insist upon it. And then, maybe, we'll be able to get it done.

But, the basic thing, is to fight for the system we need, the international system we need. At the same time, develop the consciousness of the people in each part of the world, of their role and their participation, in the kind of system we want to have built.

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