Bedvanda – Ҁaglar: Linking Business People Leads to New Jobs

Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BIH Vjekoslav Bevanda met in Istanbul with a delegation of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, let by its President Ibrahim Ҁaglar. 

Chairman Bevanda briefed the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce of the Council of Ministers Work Programme, and of the economic and political situation in BIH. He answered numerous questions as to the current status of BIH economy and possible reliefs for foreign investors, as well as on the current status and plans in the energy sector, road infrastructure and tourism. He added that BIH has already signed other bilateral and multilateral agreements relevant to foreign investort, stressing that BIH joined the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) in 2007,  it signed a preferential agreement with the EU on export to a market of over 500 million population, where 95% of all products are freed from all dues, and that the BIH currency is pegged to Euro, which provides it an additional stability.

Chairman Bevnda informed Istanbul businessmen of the fact that a number of treaties have been signed between BIH and Turkey, mentioning the Foreign Trade Agreement, Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement, and Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement.

Chairman Bevanda briefed the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce representatives of tax reliefs for foreign investors, and of numerous possibilities for investments to road infrastructure, airports, inland water ways, coupled with a series of investment prospects to a new of already existing companies in textile and wood industry, agriculture and tourism.

President Ҁaglar said that the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce has 350,000 members, a third of total business entities in Turkey. He said that Turkey and BIH continuously strengthen their trade contacts and said that the doors of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce are open for BIH businessmen, and that BIH can use the Services of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce in tis full capacity. He underlined that the current focus is to awareness rising on the energy efficiency matters.

Chairman Bevanda invited Turkish businessmen to apply to international calls for bids and invest to BIH.

“It needs for businessmen to be connected, and they need to work and make business deals”, Chairman Bevanda said on that occasion.

The interlocutors agreed that the cooperation between BIH and Turkey is good, but that there is still a lot of unused capacities to make it even better.

The meeting in the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce was attended by Federal Minister of Energy and Mining Erdal Trhulj and Minister of Agriculture, Water Management and Forestry of Hercegovačko-Neretvanski Ccanton Donko Jović.

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