The director of the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency of BiH, Milica Marković, said today in Belgrade that it was in the interest of both BiH and Serbia to proceed with assistance, investments and other economic cooperation. After the meeting with the head of the Republic of Srpska Representative Office in Serbia, Mlađen Cicović, Marković emphasized the importance of promoting the investment potentials of BiH and Republic of Srpska, as well as cooperation with Serbia.

‘I think it is the mutual interest of both sides to continue certain trends demonstrated by Serbia towards the Republic of Srpska, and towards BiH as a whole - i.e. aid, investments and other economic cooperation between the two countries,’ said Marković. She specified that it was important ‘for each instance - both the Republic of Srpska Representation and the Agency in Sarajevo - to continue providing their contribution in order to develop that cooperation.’

‘In the past period, Serbia demonstrated that it was a benevolent and friendly country towards BiH and all its peoples, and all the investments made have had far-reaching significance and benefit for all peoples in BiH,’ Marković added.

She pointed out that foreign investments were generally at a standstill due to the coronavirus, and noted that despite that, ‘Serbia has not been at a standstill’.

‘Serbia was not at a standstill and it was providing its contribution, and in that very year, 2020, the works on the Belgrade-Sarajevo highway began,’ Marković pointed out.

According to her, this is a large and expensive investment in which Serbia ‘bears a large financial share’.

‘Serbia has demonstrated a well-intentioned desire to build the highway, and that investment is very demanding in the geographical sense, because BiH is a hilly country... and this will be a very expensive investment, of course with Turkey and BiH,’ Marković said.

She reminded that the works had already started, and added that ‘unfortunately in BiH there are still delays and outstanding issues that needed to be resolved already in order to advance from Kuzmin, i.e. from Rača, to Bijeljina’.

Cicović said that the Representation would be actively involved in all the Agency’s initiatives, and that it would ‘work intensively on promoting economic potentials and investment opportunities in the Republic of Srpska, as well as in BiH’. He added that the purpose of establishing the Representation was to work on encouraging and strengthening the cooperation between Serbia and the Republic of Srpska, and in that, as he pointed out, primarily the economic cooperation and encouraging investors from Serbia.

‘Today’s visit is a new quality for us because together we will contribute much more to what constitutes investments in the Republic of Srpska, and in that way we will show everything that BiH is as investment potential,’ Cicović emphasized.

Marković said that she was at the BiH Embassy in Belgrade earlier during the day.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Agency of BiH was established by the Council of Ministers, and in addition to attracting foreign investments, its task is to encourage existing investors to invest further and expand their business.

Source: SRNA