The dilemma about economic cooperation with China comes at a moment when the formation of another body for the economic rapprochement of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and China was announced.
It would be a third body established at the BiH level, whose task would be to promote investments between the two countries, through conferences and seminars, as well as help in cooperation between companies.
This is stated in the proposal of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH and the Ministry of Trade of the People’s Republic of China.
What is known about this body?
So far, BiH has formed a Joint Commission for Trade and Economic Cooperation and a Coordination Team for Cooperation at the state level.
The document on the launch of another body of a similar nature was published in mid-April on the page of eKonsultacije, the platform of the Ministry of Justice of BiH for public consultations on legal documents.
The Foreign Investment Promotion Agency (FIPA) of BiH, which is supposed to coordinate the work, said that the establishment of the group was agreed back in 2018 at the meeting of the Joint Commission for Economy and Trade of China and BiH.
What do they say in the Foreign Trade Chamber of BiH?
The Foreign Trade Chamber of BiH is not aware of the latest agreement on deepening cooperation, but they point out that it is very difficult for BiH to position itself in the Chinese market, due to the distance and the small economy of BiH.
“Our economy is too small to meet the demands of the large Chinese market. We have a big deficit when it comes to foreign trade between China and BiH, and the situation is similar in other countries of the region, simply because China is a big economy and their goods find their way to BiH more easily because they have a lot of raw materials that we use,” says the vice president of this chamber, Ahmet Egrlic.
He adds that BiH has the potential for China to invest in it, but as far as exports in the opposite direction are concerned, he is not optimistic.
Chinese imports and investments in BiH
FIPA states that by the end of 2021, “only” 9.4 million BAM (about 4.8 million euros) have been invested in BiH from China.
They explain that this figure is small, because the Chinese, for the most part, cooperate with public or private companies in BiH, so it is not registered as “direct foreign investment”.
Chinese investments in BiH are practically all in the field of energy and infrastructure, and FIPA estimates from 2022 show that their value ranges between 1.9 and 2.9 billion euros, Radio Slobodna Evropa reports.
