Bevanda: Maximum Support to Private Sector

Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BIH Vjekoslav Bevanda recevived in Sarajevo today Director of the International Financial Corporation (IFC) for Europe and Central Asia Region Tomasz Telma, with whom he discussed the modalities of cooperation between the Council of Ministers of BIH and IFC in creation of as conductive as possible business environment for private entrepreneurship and new investment. 

Chairman Bevanda informed Director Telma on activities of the Council of Ministers of BIH towards ensuring fiscal consolidation and stability in the country. He stressed the determination of the Council of Ministers of BIH for economic and entrepreneurship development and, especially the SSEs segment of it, in cooperation with Entity governments.

Chairman Bevanda said that Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country of unutilised potentials, and that the Council of Ministers of BIH has intensified its efforts at development of priority infrastructural projects, like the Corridor V c motorway, while though regional cooperation, it focuses on regional arrangements concerning the construction of the Adriatic-Ionian motorway.

Director Telma said that despite global financial crisis, the IFC experienced a raise of project investments in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region. He said that, since the 1990s to date, the IFC implemented in BIIH US $ 35 million worth projects, while the current IFC project portfolio in BIH amounts to US$ 70 million.

Director Telma reiterated IFC and World Bank’s commitment to development of private sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina, though improvement of favourable business environment, and regional foreign exchange and by boosting infrastructural capital investments through a variety of cooperation modalities between private and public sectors, be it concessional or PPP model.

Chairman Bevanda thanked to the IFC and World Bank for their work in BIH thus far, commending the IFC for its support to private investments, particularly in those sectors where our county has fully utilised the available potentials.

“Besides the crisis, the private sector is the one that provides an impetus to economy. It is important for Bosnia and Herzegovina to invest and develop the tourism sector, as we have a huge potential there, which is not sufficiently used. The same goes for the wood industry, in which we have rich experience, in addition to metal and car industry. In these industries, the private sector should enjoy a maximum support”, Chairman Bevanda said.

The interlocutors expressed their joint satisfaction with very good cooperation of the Council of Ministers and IFC. Director Telma thanked to Chairman Bevanda and the Council of Ministers of BIH for their support to IFC and World Bank projects in BH thus far, emphasising the current arrangement of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of BIH and Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BIH in organising an international conference on double taxation avoidance, which is to take place in Sarajevo, by the end of April.

The meeting was attended by Anabel Abreu, Head of World Bank Office in BIH.

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