A business forum in collaboration with representatives of the business diaspora and local businessmen was held on Friday in Travnik with the aim of networking and creating new business opportunities.
In front of the Travnik municipality, which is the organizer of yesterday’s meeting, the mayor of the municipality, Kenan Dautovic, spoke and emphasized the importance of promoting business meetings and investments from the diaspora in order to develop the socio-economic development of Travnik and the wider region.
“Our goal is to build trust with the diaspora, our people who live outside the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) so that they know that they have a constant, reliable partner in the municipality of Travnik. In previous years, we have been actively working on building all the assumptions for improving the business environment in Travnik, which we want to enable reinvestment in our community,” said Mayor Dautovic.
This year, Travnik is organizing six days of cooperation with the diaspora, of which yesterday was the highlight of the event, where the goal was to connect local businessmen and businessmen from the diaspora.
“We are grateful for the cooperation between the municipality of Travnik and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) “Diaspora Invest” project, where we are able to realize the long-term vision of cooperation with the diaspora, which is based on building trust and strengthening the economy,” emphasized Azem Ejubovic, head of the service for development, economy, and non-economy of the municipality of Travnik.
Sanel Helda, an investor from Switzerland who opened the company “Zeleno Zlato” also spoke during the business networking event. Originally from Travnik, Sanel earned the title of an electrical engineer and is very successful in his profession, but that did not stop him from investing in his native region.
“We decided to build a 2 MW solar power plant, but we don’t intend to stop there,” says Helda.
In addition to direct investments, the diaspora is an important link for strengthening exports, according to the owner of “Edika Jusic” from Munich, Suada Jusic.
“Through two retail facilities in that German city of over 1.000 square meters, we are actively working on the promotion and presentation of BiH products. Over 20 percent of the assortment comes directly from BiH, which opens the way for local producers to place their products on the Western market,” Jusic stated.
“Through the “Diaspora Days” event, Travnik showed how many different ways we can involve the diaspora in conversations at the local level. With a good approach to communication with its diaspora and through this event – Travnik shows by its example that through several strategic steps, local communities can show a different attitude towards their citizens who are scattered around the world. Let’s use their potential, knowledge, business connections, and energy in order to encourage employment and development with new investments. That is why the USAID project “Diaspora Invest” supported this event and strategic cooperation with Travnik through the development of a local fund and numerous joint initiatives to strengthen the partnership with the Travnik diaspora,” concluded the USAID project “Diaspora Invest”.
E.Dz.
