Minister Šabić visits “Potenti Alpe-Adria” Conference: Regional potentials in focus of the discussion

Minister of Economy of the Sarajevo Canton, Muharem Šabić visited the President of Carinthia    Chamber of Commerce, Jürgen Mandl. During the meeting, Mandl highlighted the significance of Alpe-Adria economic space, and Minister Šabić talked about cooperation in various fields, especially in the field of tourism and biomass usage. According to the writings of the Austrian magazine ““Kärntner Wirtschaft”, Minister Šabić was impressed during the visits to the firms from Carinthia. He visted a firm that deals with energy supply “Kelag”, the “Urbas Energietechnik”, and the “Offner Holzindustrie” company in Wolfsberg.

Šabić arranged mutual cooperation with the president of Slovenian “Economic Association Carinthia”, Benjamin Wakounig, with the president of “Chamber of Commerce Carinthia”, Jürgen Mandl. He also agreed to cooperate with the Head of the “Drava-Trading” company, Felix Weiser and with Hema Kircher-Schneider, foreign economy expert at the “Chamber of Commerce Carinthia”.     

Advantages, special opportunities, challenges and potentials of the Alpe-Adria region where in the focus of the “Potenti Alpe-Adria” event which took place in the Austrian city Velden. The Minister of Economy of the Sarajevo Canton, Muharem Šabić, also attended this event.

More than 200 interested participants from the Alpe-Adria region answered the call from the Slovenian “Economic Association Carinthia” and from the Chamber of Commerce.

In Velden, a whole day was reserved for discussing the importance of cross-border cooperation. “For some investors, Carinthia, as a region is too small. But when we observe the whole Alpe-Adria region with around 5 million residents, things become more interesting”, said the president of “Chamber of Commerce Carinthia”, Jürgen Mandl.

The CEO of the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce, Samo Hribar Milič, showed that mutual cooperation in many fields already functions very well: “Exchange of goods between Slovenia and Austria has increased by 100 percent since Slovenia became a member of European Union. Exchange with Italy increased by 70 percent, and exchange with Croatia has increased by 22 percent in only the last two years.” Only in this year, Slovenia had a bigger exchange with Carinthia than with the whole state of Austria in the year 2004.

Professor Dietmar Sternad from the “International Business Management College Carinthia” suggested a better use of the regions cultural potentials: “High quality of life, social cohesion and being a place where different spaces and cultures collide are the things that identify the Alpe-Adria region.