The Fifth Summit of Mayors and Heads of Bosnia and Herzegovina again this year brought together numerous representatives of local communities with the aim of strengthening mutual cooperation and opening up new development opportunities for the entire country.
The central theme of the summit, which was held in Sarajevo, was the establishment of an institutional Service for the diaspora of Bosnia and Herzegovina at local levels, which would enable a systemic and long-term connection with the citizens of BiH who live and work around the world, announced Bosnia International Forum.
The president of Bosnia International Forum, Hasib Hadžić, emphasized the importance of this approach, stressing that local communities have a key role to play.
“The institutional strengthening of relations between the diaspora, as the greatest resource of our country, starts from local communities, because most of the daily needs and interests of people around the world concern and start from local levels and environments of origin. Therefore, we are building the Service for the needs and interests of the diaspora through local communities, and at the moment around 30 municipalities and cities are signatories to the Cooperation Memorandum,” said Hadžić.
The “Diaspora Connecting” platform was presented as a key tool for the implementation of this initiative, which includes the creation of an interactive global map of business entities and natural persons originating from Bosnia and Herzegovina. This platform aims to enable efficient networking of the diaspora, but also direct connection and two-way mutual communication as well as communication with local communities and businessmen in the country and the world.
The press release states that the importance of the summit was also confirmed by the signing of the memorandum of cooperation, with which the participants took a concrete step towards the institutionalization of this idea and its implementation in practice.
In addition to the topic of diaspora, significant focus was also placed on the use of European Union funds through local communities.
The participants discussed ways to improve access to EU funds, and it was announced that education, training and the collection of project proposals would involve local entrepreneurs, associations and economic entities.
The organizers point out that the Summit of Mayors and Heads of Bosnia and Herzegovina is gaining importance every year, and that an increasing number of local communities recognize its value. Concrete results are already visible through the implementation of various economic, social and cultural projects that resulted from earlier meetings, it was announced.
