BiH needs great economic systems based on market economy and competitiveness, and we have most potential in energy, automotive industry, construction, wood industry, food production and tourism, stated Director General of “Energoinvest” Enes Čengić.
Čengić was a keynote speaker at a regular Sunday session of the Association of Independent Intellectuals Circle 99 on ”Does BiH need great economic systems?”.
When BiH had big companies, said Čengić, it was economically strong. Before the war, according to structure of economy, BiH was a medium developed country. Participation of industry in gross domestic product was more than 42 percent before the war in BiH, which means we were an industrial country, and big economic systems at the time, such as ”Energoinvest“, ”Famos“, ”Šipad“, ”Unis“ were export force of not only BiH, but also Yugoslavia at the time.
Čengić said that BiH today imports three times more than it exports and that is definitely one of the indicators of the economy of the country, and political fragmentation and inability of doing business according to principle of economic regions also puts it in a negative position compared to other coountries.
”When big systems disappeared, we were replaced by foreign companies, and the state had no mechanisms to protect domestic companies, so after war we were imposed with trends and reforms, with privatization, which lead to suffocating big companies and making our economic dependant. That dependence became more expressed for economy when foreign banks took over our financial sector,” added Čengić.
Today’s Energoinvest has around 670 employees and according to some indicators it is a medium company, however due to its name, brand and tradition the company is still accepted as a world-renowned company in some markets.
Agency for Statistics of BiH, according to Čengić, provided information that big companies in BiH from sector of industrial services create even 40 percent of total trade and hire 46 percent of workers, even though there is only 2 percent of them in the country compared to the number of registered legal entities.
Čengić noted that the percentage needs to be much higher.
”Big companies move the economy. We also need to strengthen our own financial capacity and create funds to follow the economy in international and domestic market ‘matches’. Whether it is through IGA, Development Bank or by forming an individual fund for economy, we must have a strong financial support because we are vulnerable without it,’’ said Čengić, noting that BiH economy, industry and companies primarily need new orders for their growth and development.
(Source: Fena)
