The Prime Minister of the Sarajevo Canton Elmedin Konaković, Ministers of Finance, Economy, Physical Planning, Construction and Environmental Protection, Culture and Sports of the Sarajevo Canton, Jasmin Halebić, Muharem Šabić, Čedomir Lukić and Samer Rešidat have met today with delegation of businessmen from the Gulf countries led by Abdulrahim Naqi, Secretary General, Federation of Chambers of Commerce of these countries, who said that the Canton has enormous potential for foreign investors investment, but the favorable environment need to be created.
"Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina have many natural resources, this primarily refers to ores, minerals and forests, which means that you have an excellent ground for investors, but you must create a system that will support and help develop your domestic production primarily, and in this way, the doors for foreign investors will be open", said Naqi. He added that they are willing to help in the creation of joint projects that will encourage the development of B&H in general.
"We can support you to develop all business, from agriculture, sports to travel - because my opinion is that you can have much faster economic growth if you all consider economics before politics," said Naqi. He once again underlined that the environment which will help the development of the private sector must be created urgently.
The Prime Minister Konaković said that he believes this is the right time to invest, because we have a lot of unused potential and he believes that the future is in the private capital, not the state capital.
"This Government is trying to create an environment with more chances for investment. Currently, we have four sectors which have recorded growth. These are tourism, education, IT sector and wood - metal industry," explained the Prime Minister Konaković.
According to his words, the Law of Tourism (which will finally regulate the area of tourism) and reorganization of the Tourism Association will be on the agenda at the Assembly of the Sarajevo Canton in fifteen days.
"This year there were three times more tourists than during the Winter Games '84, which clearly shows the importance of tourism for the Sarajevo Canton" said Prime Minister Konaković. When it comes to the education in Sarajevo, in addition to our University, as a very important institution, we also have several private institutions including two which are from Turkey, where several thousands of students who come from these countries study. This also provides posibilities for the development of university tourism.
The Prime Minister Konaković said that he has a plan with the countries of the region, from Slovenia to Serbia, to allow studying for about 100,000 foreign students, because practice has shown that an international universities are very profitable.
"The IT sector, and wood - metal industry also has a posibility for improvement. We are aware of the importance of information technologies development. Because of it, we are trying to have informatic as a compulsory subject in primary schools "said the Prime Minister Konaković.
The Minister of Economy, Šabić, informed the guests about the website of the Ministry of the Economy where everyone can find a Guide for investing.
He also added that "The Law on incentives to small business development” was adopted a few months ago. We urgently need to start applying the Law on public - private partnerships (PPP) and Law of concessions," the Minister Šabić said.
The Minister Halebić stated that the Sarajevo Canton is in the proces of preparing Development Strategy until 2020. The Strategy will also contain the list of the projects suitable for investment.
At the end of the meeting, guests were invited the Prime Minister and ministers of the Sarajevo Canton Government to come and visit their countries, and leaarn on the spot about the implementation of development projects in their regions.
