China’s COSCO Shipping Dragon Maritime Company has officially inaugurated its branch office in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (BiH) capital Sarajevo on Tuesday, promising economic progress.
During the press conference and official introduction of the company, the head of COSCO SHIPPING Dragon Maritime for BiH, Meliha Mujezinovic, pointed out on the support the company is about to give to the locals.
“Representative office in Sarajevo brings the direct presence of COSCO Shipping on the BiH market, and gives the support to local parties through direct and efficient communication and maximum efficiency in the work,” Mujezinovic said. Mujezinovic highlighted that company’s commitment is to make “One Road One Belt” Initiative more recognizable in BiH, and for China and BiH to continue friendly and business relations, bringing economic progress to BiH.
The COSCO company has brought the decision to use the Greek Port of Piraeus in 2009, and after the frequency of transport has increased, three years later, the company decided to use the so-called “intermodal type of transport”, hence combining the ship and railway traffic, company’s general manager Vladimir Lekic explained.
After the expansion showed positive results, the company decided to open its services in BiH, and it happened mainly because of the One Road One Belt Initiative.
“BiH market is very interesting for us because BiH offers the possibility to use many ports,” Lekic said, adding that there is a great number of Chinese companies here with which they have done business earlier.
He added that COSCO aims to have its service in Port Ploce in Neum, a city located some 210 kilometers southwest of the capital and that this company will connect BiH with the countries of Far East.
When it comes to company’s plans in BiH, in the first place it is the opening of railway terminals where the company’s containers would be stored. In the second phase, terminals would be used for goods loading and connection with ports.
When it comes to the volume of the work company did region, namely in Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and now BiH, when it is compared to 2017, there is a 60.0 percent increase of traffic and market share done by COSCO since the beginning of this year.
“We expect the most of BiH market,” Lekic said, pointing out on the increase of exports from BiH market, which was not the case earlier, especially in exports of wood and stone.
COSCO Shipping, one of the leading shipping companies in the world, is mainly engaged in domestic and international maritime container transport services and related business, as the group’s core business sector.
By June 30, 2018, COSCO SHIPPING Lines has a total of 282 corporate enterprises, including 129 domestic enterprises and 153 enterprises abroad, and it is connected to 289 ports in 90 countries worldwide.
(Photo: Xinhua/Haris Memija)
