The Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH, Staša Košarac, met today in Belgrade with the Minister of Internal and External Trade of Serbia, Tomislav Momirović, with whom he discussed strengthening cooperation and improving foreign trade exchange.
The interlocutors exchanged opinions on the “Open Balkans”, where it was pointed out that this regional initiative increased the volume of trade between the member countries by almost 30 percent.
Minister Košarac said that in the next month, he will initiate the holding of a conference on “Open Balkans” in Sarajevo.
“We have agreed to hold a conference in Sarajevo to which we will invite relevant ministers from Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania. Our common goal is to discuss the perspectives and advantages of the ‘Open Balkans’ with the representatives of the chamber system in the Republic of Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Minister Košarac announced.
He reiterated the position of the institutions of Republika Srpska on the need for regional connection and strengthening of cooperation.
“The Republika Srpska and its representatives at the joint level are proponents of joining BiH to the ‘Open Balkans’, primarily because of the benefits for the domestic economic secto,” stated Košarac.
He added that today businessmen from the Republika Srpska and the Federation of BiH are in an unequal position compared to their colleagues from the region.
“While the businessmen of the member countries of the Open Balkans have an unimpeded flow of goods at the borders, our businessmen waste a lot of time waiting at the border crossings, which has a negative impact on the quality of the product and jeopardizes the delivery time,” said Minister Košarac.
Ministers Košarac and Momirović pointed out the importance of integrated border crossings between Serbia and Republika Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“The common position is that we must speed up the procedures when it comes to the integration of the Rača and Vardište border crossings, which would significantly contribute to the increase in foreign trade, faster flow of goods and additional connectivity in the tourism sector,” Minister Košarac concluded, as announced by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and economic relations of BiH.
