The business forum Connecting Businessmen in the Diaspora and the Motherland – Opportunities and Challenges, which opened in Banja Luka, gathered more than 100 participants with the goal to attract as many businessmen from the diaspora as possible to invest in the motherland.

The president of the Banja Luka Regional Chamber of Commerce, Goran Račić, said that the forum was a good opportunity to bring closer the business, tourism, and other potentials available to the Republic of Srpska to businessmen from the diaspora.

– Businessmen from the diaspora are a significant investment potential for Srpska, because it is evident that the municipalities in which they had invested in the previous period had a significant rate of economic growth, as well as an increase in employment – Račić noted.

He said that the Republic of Srpska offered potential investors a series of benefits which made it easier for them to start a business.

– Almost all local communities in the Republic of Srpska have defined business zones that can be offered to our diaspora representatives under very favorable conditions, as well as a positive business environment with tax rates below those in the region – said Račić.

The president of the Association of Serbian Businessmen in Switzerland, Stojan Stevanović, said that Srpska offered numerous investment benefits, than abroad.

– Good cooperation with local authorities is very important, as are the efforts to reduce the burden of the paperwork needed to start and run a business – Stevanović pointed out.

The president of Koreni (Roots), the association of the motherland, diaspora and Serbs in the region of Banja Luka, Mirjana Stojanović, said that the forum was organized as part of the three-day event Meeting Friends from the Diaspora with the aim to provide a single space to hear about both the advantages and challenges of having as many investors as possible come to Srpska.

– Together, we will try to find answers to how and what should be done to minimize the outflow and maximize the inflow of people from and to our countries as much as possible – said Stojanović.

The forum was organized by the Koreni association of Banja Luka, the Banja Luka Chamber of Commerce, and the Association of Serbian Businessmen of Switzerland, under the auspices of the President of Srpska, Želјka Cvijanović.