ROSEMARY CHURCH, WORLD NEWS: It's been one year since NATO ended its bombing campaign in Yugoslavia. Belgrade says it's making progress in its effort to rebuild. CNN's Alessio Vinci has this report on the man credited with much of the reconstruction.</s>ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Ten days after NATO jets started bombing Yugoslavia, Milutan Mrkonjic received a phone call. It was his good friend, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.</s>MILUTAN MRKONJIC, AGENCY FOR RECONSTRUCTION (via translator): He said, "Mrkonjic, we have to rebuild our country. Start with a team tomorrow. Go and visit the sites."</s>VINCI: Mrkonjic, a 58-year old career civil engineer, became the director of the agency for the country's reconstruction, an office set up by presidential decree in April last year, with the aim of rebuilding what NATO's jets were destroying. But Mrkonjic knew money would be a problem.</s>MRKONJIC (via translator): Sanctions made our job harder, that (ph) companies kept good personnel. Our engineers and experts are well known all over the world. Knowing these qualities, we began our work assured.</s>VINCI: Mrkonjic refuses to say how much money has been spent on rebuilding the country, but says 80 percent of the funds came from government resources and a special reconstruction tax. The remaining 20 percent, he says, came from donations from abroad. According to official figures, in one year, the agency rebuilds 28 road bridges, four railway bridges and a railway track, repaired 174 houses or apartments, and rebuilt 449. Four heating plants have been reopened. Mrkonjic says the secret of his success is hard work, order and discipline. He appears to supervise the agency's work with a velvet glove and an iron fist. When a contractor told him he could not finish a job within the scheduled time, he tore up
Progress Being Made in Rebuilding of Belgrade