William Asselborn, Head of the Belgian Diplomatic Office in BiH, visited the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FIPA) in order to have information about activities and responsibilities of the Agency in the domain of attracting foreign investments and promotion of Bosnia and Herzegovina in international business communities as well as the potentials of BiH that could be offered to foreign investors.

Mr Asselborn pointed out that Belgium's investments in BiH are low, that the trade with BH is going through Croatia and Slovenia, and that Belgian investors do not know much about the Balkans, including BiH, due to the lack of promotional activities in the field of promotion of this region.

He was also interested in the most important economic sectors of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the most important investors in BiH, and FIPA's plans related to promotional activities during 2018.

The Director of the FIPA Gordan Milinić informed Mr Asselborna about the Agency as the main address for foreign investments in BiH, about the work with investors from the registration of the company to the completion of investment, finding investors, linking them with project owners, and providing support.

He pointed out the record increase in foreign investments during the nine months of 2017 of 60.6%, highlighting the registered amount of 630.8 million BAM as a significant increase over the previous years when we mainly recorded growth.

It was agreed to make additional efforts through the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of BiH and Belgium, as well as the regional chambers of commerce and the employers' associations of Belgium in order to organize an investment forum where Belgian investors would be presented investment opportunities of BiH in order to animate them to invest in BiH. It was agreed that the Belgian Diplomatic Office in BiH is also engaged in media promotion of BiH based on the "Invest in BiH" campaign.

For its part, FIPA will animate all relevant BiH institutions to make additional efforts for the promotion of BiH in Belgium in 2018.