Chairman Zvizdić at Summit of People's Republic of China and Central and East European Countries in China

Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BIH Dr Denis Zvizdič attends the 4th Summit of 16 counties of Central and East Europe and People’s Republic of China, taking place in Chinese City of Suzhou. The aim of the Smit is to link East Asia through Middle East with Europe, and it was launched four years ago as a megaproject “One Belt – One Road”. 

The Summit participants commended considerable improvement made in cooperation of China and Central and East Europe. This 16+1 cooperation promotes links between China with counties of Central and Eastern Europe, and it contributes to overall balanced developed of the comprehensive strategic partnership of China and the European Union. Prime Ministers of 16 counties and of China committed today to respect the European Union regulations and, stressed that this cooperation is important and beneficial also in view of relations of China and European Union.

The complete address of Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BIH Dr Denis Zvizdić at the 4^th Summit of 16 Prime Ministers of Central and East Europe with Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of China is available blow:

 

“

Honourable Prime Minister Li,

Honourable Prime Ministers of Central and East European Countries,

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

It is my pleasure to take part, in my capacity of Chairman of the Council of Ministers, at the 4^th Summit of Heads of Governments of the People’s Republic of China and 16 counties of Central and east Europe,

The fourth summit, as those before, all have a single objective – development and fostering of economic and cultural cooperation of our countries. In that context, we commend the adoption of the Mid-Term Cooperation Agenda of China and 16 countries of Central and east Europe, which represent a clear vision and platform on which in the following five years we can develop cooperation of our friendly countries.

All cooperation areas are defined under the Mid-Term Agenda (economy, linkage, industrial capacities, finances, agriculture, and innovations) and for Bosnia and Herzegovina they represent an exceptional opportunity to take an active part in it and become your genuine partner.

Let me use this opportunity and inform the distinguished forum about the current developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Stabilisation and Accession Agreement with the European Union took force this June and provided a genuine incentive for necessary reform implementation. By this Agreement taking effect, a close partnership was set-up between the Europa Union and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

My country will very soon apply for membership in the European Union and will get a candidate status, which would open new perspectives concerning the EU-BIH relations.

This June, as well, we adopted the Economic Reform Agenda for BIH 2015-2018, which defined numerous reform measures in the area of public finances, business climate, labour market, social welfare reform, rule of law, and public administration reform.

A credible reform implementation has already started to yield positive results, so that all BIH vital economic parameters are in a slight up-ward trend, as seen below:

-          Labour market continues to increase employment rates, as those grew for 1.8 per cent, relative to last year;

-          Physical volume of industry is increased for 2 per cent, relative to 2014year ;

-          Export as increased for 4.4 per cent, while foreign exchange deific was decreased for 5.54 per cent;

-          First six months of 2015 saw the increased number of tourists for 26 per cent and number of overnight stays increased for 28 per cent, relative to  the same period 2014;

-          Export of meat to the EU multiplied, and the same is expected for milk and dairy products;

Simultaneously, a constant growth of production and expert is evident in furniture industry and metal industry, which speaks of the improved quality of our products, which become recognisable in the international markets.

The energy and transport remain our sectors having major potentials for both domestic and foreign investments, so in the next three to four years rightly to these sectors we expect EUR several billion strong investments.

In regard to that, I use this opportunity to express the significant interest of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the improvement of bilateral cooperation with China, as well as with countries of Central and East Europe.

On that grounds, we proposed for Bosnia and Herzegovina to host an economic forum, early next year, focused to infrastructure, tourism and production capacities.

Honestly, I hope that you, dear colleagues Prime Ministers, would support this initiative of ours. For Bosnia and Herzegovina it would represent a special opportunity to present ourselves as good hosts and facilitate linking of our entrepreneurs and create business partnerships to contribute to investment attraction and realisation of joint ventures.

 

I see his gathering at the level of the Heads of Governess  of China and 16 Central and East European countries to be of a great importance for the future cooperation, to benefit, by way of bringing new ideas, to economic strengthening, od both Europe and China.

The improvement of international cooperation in trade and investments would certainly add to economic development,  as the very essence of this Summit is to stat-up economic partnerships to result in new investment projects, exchange of know-how and finally in improvement of our economies.

 

Once again, let me express my appreciation and thankfulness to the People’s Republic of China for the extraordinary organisation of this year’s Summit.

Thank you!

”

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