The Chamber of Commerce of the Federation of BiH (PKFBiH) and the USAID project ‘Diaspora Invest’ held an info-day in Sarajevo today dedicated to diaspora investments, where it was emphasized that the BiH diaspora has great capacity and can help the country.
The presentation included the last call of the USAID project “Diaspora Invest”, which includes the allocation of grants to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises that have business connections with the diaspora. All companies that are not older than three years and have members of the diaspora that share ownership (persons who have continuously resided outside the country for three years or are still residing) or members of the diaspora are their business partners (as evidenced by agreements on cooperation and connection) can apply for a new invitation from USAID.
Dobrila Boba Vukmanović, project manager, stated on behalf of USAID that the last project that ended in April 2022 proved and showed that investors from the diaspora are very interested in investing in BiH, especially in the production sectors.
“We are now continuing what we started in 2017 and we are pleased to announce the first call today, one of the many calls that will be presented during this five-year project. The total fund is five million KM, and the grants will be in the amount of up to 70,000 KM,” said Vukmanović.
As pointed out, the goal of these activities is to encourage the investments of the BiH diaspora in the homeland, but that is not all. Support will also include companies without diaspora participation, in the segment of technical support mechanisms connected with diaspora experts.
PKFBiH Vice President Mirsad Jašarspahić said that there are numerous positive examples and interests that should be supported.
“FBiH Chamber of Commerce is focused on the business community and our task is to recognize positive stories in BiH that can be connected to positive stories in the diaspora. Bosnia and Herzegovina has a significant diaspora, a large number of people and this is shown by the number of remittances every year in financial transactions, but we emphasize that this is not essential. More important are the strong networks that our people have and they can certainly be the best ambassadors of the BiH economy,” added Jašarspahić, Fena reports.
