Within the official visit of the state-economic delegation of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar from 6th to 10th March 2013, as a member of the delegation, the Director of the B&H Foreign Investment Promotion Agency (FIPA) Jelica Grujic attended three Business Forum held in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Doha. In the B&H delegation were representatives from 46 companies and institutions.
The size of the delegation, the composition of delegation, economic forums, meetings at the political level and the businessmen level, and attention paid on this visit by the media of the host countries significantly influence the creation of the image of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a safe location for foreign investors.
The interest was shown by businessmen of these countries for the establishment of economic cooperation with Bosnia and Herzegovina. A significant number of businessmen participated at forums and it was used the opportunity to present the B&H investment opportunities to these target groups, to present them concrete projects and to establish personal contacts. Now it is our mission to maintain these contacts in the future in order to eventually materialize concrete ideas in period to come.
Entrepreneurs of the host countries expressed their interest in Bosnia as part of the region and highlighted the importance of proximity to the European market.
As our comparative advantages it was identified the geographical position of B&H, especially by the Croatian accession to the EU when Bosnia will have more than 1000 km border, not with Croatian, but with EU. Additional advantages are low operating costs, and our untapped natural resources.
Investment funds of Qatar and the UAE have expressed willingness to finance projects from B&H tourism and energy sectors and metal industries. In which measure this opportunity will be used, depends on Bosnia and Herzegovina.