Military industry firms in BiH have the opportunity to increase export of arms and ammunition to Turkey, and an agreement between BiH and Turkey on cooperation in the field will enable this after it entered into force in February of this year. But to increase export to the country, first it is necessary to prepare projects and consider all the opportunities that the agreement offers.
Framework agreement
This was the reason for the meeting of the military industry group within the Foreign Trade Chamber of BiH (VTKBiH) with representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH.
“This was the first preparatory meeting between the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations and the military industry group, in order for us to situate what are the models of direct economic cooperation that we can achieve on the basis of this agreement,” said Ognjenka Lalovic, director of the economic sector of the VTKBiH.
Dragisa Mekic, deputy minister of foreign trade and economic relations, who is one of the co-chairs of the joint committee between BiH and Turkey in this field, said that agreements mainly are ofa framework character and open the possibility of mutual cooperation in the military industry field.
“Turkey, as well as countries in the Middle East and Asia, are our traditional market and before the committee’s first meeting we want to prepare and show our joint projects that we could offer Turkey,” said Mekic.
Military industry export has seen growth this and previous years. For the ten months of this year total exports exceeded all of last year’s, and if this trend continues through the end of the year, exports could exceed 85 million KM.
Jusuf Hubjer, director of Unis Ginex in Gorazde, said that his factory is working extremely well, and doing business well in relation to a decade ago when they had a total income of three to four million KM, and this year they hope to reach 25 million KM, of which more than 80 percent is export. The firm exports to Turkey, and from this meeting, Hubjer added, he expects to expand cooperation with this country.
Loss of staff
In military industry, according to Zija Fazlagic, director of the Repair Institute in Hadzic, there are several problems, one of which is the lack of continuity in production, which is reflected in the loss of staff, because they do not have enough work to train new staff in practical applications. This prevents following global trends in the field.
“The problem is that factories are on the entity ministry level, and the Ministry of Defense is on the state level. This dissolution separated the factory from its main consumer in the MoD, from its main promoter in the world,” said Fazlagic.
(Source: Oslobođenje)
