Džemal Bijedić

Statesman, reformist, equal rights advocate and leader. Bijedić was born in Mostar and graduated from Law School in Belgrade in 1940. He played an important role in the liberation of the country from axis powers. From 1971 until his death in 1977 he was Prime Minister of Yugoslavia. He advocated the development of the economy, organized new economic reform and infrastructure of Bosnia and Herzegovina, construction of a modern road network, regional water supply, city sewers and telecommunications. He pushed the project “1000 schools” which aimed to build schools in all rural parts of the country. During his career he met with the most important world statesmen of that time: Mao Zedong, Gerald Ford and Leonid Brezhnev. The university in Mostar was renamed Džemal Bijedić University in his honour.