This was the second of conferences planned within the implementation of the Balkans Primary Health Care Policy Project. The total value of the project, lasting between September 2006 and September 2009, is CAD 7 million and is financed by the Canadian Government through CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency). Project is implemented in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Orvill Adams, Project Director, welcomed all participants on behalf of CIDA, Queen’s University and the Canadian Society for International Health. He stressed that our challenges in Primary Health Care are shared ones and we can improve by building on good practices, and minimizing mistakes by learning from them.
"Thirty years after World Health Organization defined strategic directions of primary health care in this area, key messages are repeated and we are learning form our experiences. Role of this component of health care is not replaceable and we have to keep in mind that the first contact that citizens, no matter population, have with the health care system is with institutions of primary health care"－highlighted Tomica Milosavljević, Minister of Health of Serbia, opening the conference.  Minister Milosavljević said he is certain that in the Balkan region, where we all have different kind of experiences, primary health care is a field where we can learn a lot form each other.
"The most important part of the health care for Belgrade is primary health care, but we still need to find the balance between the amount of money that we have and citizen’s needs. That is not an easy job. In the next few years priority will be improving the quality of primary health care"– said Dragan Đilas, Mayor of Belgrade. "Often we, who are on the top of the system, are criticized that we are slow in conducting reforms in health care system. On the other hand, people in charge of health care in England, said to me that they are conducting reforms from 1948 till now, and the process is still not finished. Health care system needs to change constantly and adapt according to the new circumstances. We are not wearing what we wore in seventies." – said Ranko Škrbić, Minister of Health and Social Welfare in Republic of Srpska, BiH.
Safet Omerović, Minister of Health, Federation of Bosnia ad Herzegovina mentioned that these conferences are very significant for the region and that we need to continue these exchanges of experience beyond the current project.
Mircea Manuc, State Secretary, Ministry of Health of Romania and Gorica Savović, Assistant Minister from Ministry of Health of Montenegro, also highlighted importance of primary health care and welcomed all participants and the idea to organize events of this kind. They have also used opening time to say something about primary health care in their countries.