STRATEGIC PLANNING AT CANTONAL LEVEL - STEP CLOSER TO EU: CANTON SARAJEVO EXAMPLE

This article is focused on significance and necessity to include Canton Sarajevo into devel - opment planning process in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a precondition for accession of our country to EU. Apart from significance and development planning process, special attention is being paid to the need to integrate and include, in organizational-management sense, all cantons in Federation as implementation units in that process. Present strategic planning process in Bosnia and Herzegovina has focused on state and entity level, while in future it is necessary also to include lower governmental levels, especially cantons in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina which represents a task of this article. In the article, present process issues and development planning results in BIH are being presented as well as the process of strategic development documents implementation, monitoring and canton level report- ing. Additionally, legal framework is also being presented due to the fact that it establishes obligation to create action plans and establish implementation units at cantonal level. The aforementioned legal framework defines Federal Institute for Development Programming as the key coordinator of all activities. Canton Sarajevo's Action Plan for Strategic Planning is structured in line with strategic development goals determined in state BIH development documents referring to the following areas: macro stability, competitiveness, employment, sustainable development and social inclusion. Significance of action planning is being em- phasized in the conclusion but only as a first step in BIH development strategy assuming creation of other relevant development aspects (social, economic and environmental). Also, necessity to harmonize aforementioned aspects with spatial planning documents is being