The Society for Market Studies, in cooperation with Seed Forum International organized today at the Central Bank in Sarajevo the first Seed Forum in BiH to activate the passive investment of financial resources in BiH and the region-primarily local deposits and remittances from abroad.
Member of BiH Presidency Bakir Izetbegović opened the conference. He stressed the importance of the forum in opening the possibility of new investments and development of the BiH economy.
“The problem of investors is that they do not enough information of vital and fast-growing companies. Seed will enable for 30.000 companies throughout the world to receive quality information on the opportunities in BiH. Among other things, our diaspora, which now helps BiH through remittances sent to their families, will in this way have a chance to organize and invest in BiH’’, said Izetbegović to journalists ahead of the conference.
He added that the decision to make this the first such place in the region in Sarajevo sends a message that BIH is favorable ground for investment in the future.
According to the Governor of the BiH Central Bank Kemal Kozarić, this forum tries to make a new form of cooperation of our citizens who live abroad and who sent 3.5 billion KM to BIH last year.
These remittances are certainly useful, but Kozarić thinks that this relationship should be raised to a higher level and try to open the opportunity of investment for our people in order to bring a new philosophy, knowledge and practices, and to prove and demonstrate that business in BiH is possible.
The aim of Seed Forum International is to eliminate borders for capital and enable visibility of quality companies towards investors.
The President and CEO of Seed Forum International Steinar Korsmo said that in countries in which SEED is active there is a perceived rise in business, which affected the economic growth of the country.
“Of course it will take time to make a community of investors in BiH and to launch growth. We hope that we will succeed to make that community in which not only traditional investors are included, but also others from Europe and the world’’, said Korsmo.
He added that there were seven companies at the conference, out of which six were from BiH and one from Norway, and that they are all trained and prepared as investors for new markets.
“The fact is that a large proportion of gross national income is covered by cashflow from abroad, from the Diaspora. If we are able to focus that money on the development of companies that bring growth, this would be one of our goals’’, said Korsmo.
The Seed Forum mechanism, according to the President of the Society for Market Studies Ifran Polimac, brings together 30 thousand individual and institutional investors from more than 30 countries, including the US, Great Britain, China, Russia, UAE and others.
(Source: Fena)
