Bosnia's Serb majority part has declared a state of emergency on Saturday over the coronavirus pandemic, aimed at making the decision-making process faster and easier.

During the 12th emergency session of the Republika Srpska (RS) parliament, the MPs adopted the decision on State of Emergency for the territory of this entity due to the epidemiological situation in this entity where 162 patients are confirmed to have contracted the new coronavirus.

“The President will work with other institutions and the RS Government, which is the proponent of the legal solutions. It is important that there is regular communication with parties and parliamentary groups. During the state of emergency, we'll have constant communication with our legal team so that our acts are not contrary to any law and that they are easily implemented,” RS President Zeljka Cvijanovic said at a press conference following the session.

The state of emergency was introduced because all other options have been exhausted, she said.

“We need to change the laws responsibly, to allow us to intervene and adopt measures that will help the economy, in order to create space for relief for the business sector,” Cvijanovic said.

“I hope this will be temporary, a few weeks or a few months, we all want to get out of this and live normally. We had to intervene. We are determined to take action and protect the economy,” she added.

Earlier, Bosnia's Serb Presidency member and Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik said that “in this way, we'll be able to make decisions related to some much faster, thus regulating certain things.”