According to announcements, Skenderija will get a new, reconstructed plateau by the end of November this year, on the 47th anniversary of its opening.
Works are nearing completion and the site was visited by the Prime Minister of the Sarajevo Canton Elmedin Konaković, Minister of Economy Muharem Šabić, Minister of Justice and Administration Mario Nenadić and Minister of Culture and Sports Mirvad Kurić. This was an opportunity for the Director Amer Kapo to inform the guests about current activities and plans for the returning of the old glory to this business, sports and cultural center of Sarajevo.
“Our aim is to bring people back to Skenderija. We have new young people who rented office space here and launched businesses thanks to the financial support from the Ministry of Economy. The business section is 75 percent filled and in the sports section we have returned everything we could,” said Kapo.
Skenderija sees its biggest development chance in returning the significance and recognizability to the Sarajevo Fair. In 2017 seven fairs should be held, including a book fair, tourism fair, wood and furniture fair, health, sports, economy and agriculture fairs, and a car fair.
In addition to fairs, increased occupancy of the Youth House would increase income by 300 to 500 percent.
According to the Minister of Economy Šabić, this ministry will continue supporting young people in such projects and when the new Tourist Board starts generating income, certainly the Skenderija Center will benefit from that as well.
Works on the reconstruction of the plateau are not important only aesthetically; they are also important because of the safety of people who work in the business sector.
“We were encouraged today not only by the execution of these works, but also by what we have heard from the ambitious new director about the events in Skenderija. We see that there are already more people in the business sector, that Skenderija is more alive. We hope the situation will improve further when the works are completed, that the sports events and new fairs will create a nice atmosphere, and we are a lot more optimistic about Skenderija than we were a year ago,” said Konaković.
(Source: radiosarajevo.ba)