Mayor Dragoljub Davidović and City Council Chairman, Slobodan Gavranović, gave at the end of October a reception for a group of twenty-seven university students from the USA.

The students, who specialize in the Peace Building Studies at the Washington University and at the other USA universities, were briefly informed about the history of Banja Luka and its developmental stages, and with the way in which the city administration operates.

„The city administration has shown a very stable operation in the last eight years, facing no serious developmental impediments, Mayor Davidović said thereby.

„Our city is a favorable destination to visit, and the visit paid by the USA students will certainly contribute to the elimination of all the prejudices that may exist about us. Banja Luka is one of the most dynamic and democratic cities in the Republic of Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina. I have presented this to the students and they hopefully realized it themselves on the very spot", Davidović stressed out. The student delegation was headed by a professor of International Relations, Michael Eleftherios, who stressed out during the reception that he had got his students acquainted with this region.

"They need to be open-minded and keep expanding their horizons in order to give certain recommendations to the responsible high officials in regard to the Republic of Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina."

According to him, it is mayors who contribute to peace building, cooperation and peoples` getting closer to each other. „I am positive that the Mayor of Banja Luka will make a contribution to the peaceful co-existence in this part of the Balkans", Eleftherios concluded.