The owner of Emirates Ltd., in whose possession is amusement park Sunnyland, Sheikh Mohammed bin Saqr Al Qasimi said that the Bosnians must not be afraid of Arab investments. He explained investment opportunities in BiH as well as some of the future projects.
You came to Sarajevo ten years ago. What attracted you to come here and why did you decide to invest in BiH?
What does not attract me in BiH? I love BiH and its people. As for me personally, if BiH is not the most beautiful, then it is definitely among the most beautiful countries in the world. It is also among the countries that have the greatest opportunity for investments. For me, on the first place is human health and the joy of children, and then I think about profit.
Sunnyland was opened in August, and we can already say that this is very successful investment, since the people of Sarajevo, as well as tourists, are here every day. Are you satisfied?
I divide satisfaction on material and moral, and moral is always before the material. I am, first of all, Mohammed bin Saqr Al Qasimi. My family was among the families who ruled for the longest period of time in the entire Arabian Gulf. My late father was a ruler, my brother is now ruler, I was a cabinet minister and I was the person responsible for many areas, I worked in the office of my father, as well as in the judiciary. I was also president of the Board of “White Cement”, and the president of UO Sakr Port, which is one of the largest in the United Arab Emirates. I want to say that I did am not here because of profit. After all, I opened my first project after ten years.
BiH went through a lot of troubles and crisis. The peoples in BiH went through a lot of disasters. I’m not talking about religion, but about people. People here have a right to be happy. To me, a profit is when I get here and see children playing around and when I see their parents happy and smiling. That gain is much bigger to me than if some of my employees would come and file a report that I earned a lot of money. However, one of the objectives is profit as well.
BiH is missing the faith in this country and mastering the marketing skills. I can safely say that more than 90 % of the Arabs I know, who are coming in BiH, talk about two things: that the people in BiH is very good and that BiH is a paradise on earth. That’s my message.
Are you planning any other projects?
I’ll start from the location of this project, because it is in the final phase. In the next two to three weeks we will make ice rink here. We will begin the implementation of the content in the outer part in the summer. We cannot say anything until we are done with all the papers.
When it comes to investments outside of this framework, we are specifically planning one location on Marijin Dvor. We are now in the process of studies of the development of these ideas. Also, we have contacts with one company from Korea regarding a major project, which is a medical health city.
(Source: Elma Berberovic/Klix.ba)
