Only two days are left until the beginning of the 9th Sarajevo Business Forum (SBF), the leading business and investment conference in the South-East Europe region, and special focus of this year’s conference will be put on regional economic integration and cooperation with the EU countries.
The first panel of this year’s SBF, which will be organized by BBI Bank in cooperation with the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), will take place in the building of the Parliament of BiH and it will be dedicated to the analysis of how the six Western Balkans countries can benefit in their relations with the EU “Western Balkans Six Regional Economic Area – Thriving with the EU”.
In accordance with the Multi-Annual Action Plan for Regional Economic Area in Western Balkans (MAP REA), which was supported by the Heads of State and Government of the six Balkan countries in Trieste back in 2017, one of the main factors that can accelerate the process of approachment to the EU is the economic integration of the region.
The topic of in what extent these measures are implemented will be discussed by Mirko Sarovic, Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH, Zdravko Pocivalsek, Minister of Economic Development and Technology of the Republic of Slovenia, Doris Pack, former President of the European Parliament Committee for South-East Europe and President of the Women’s wing of the European People’s Party, Sujeevan Satheesan from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom, Guido Clary, senior banker responsible for credit operations in the Western Balkans from the European Investment Bank (EIB), Dusko Knezevic, the founder and President of Atlas Group from the Republic of Montenegro and Branimir Muidza, the President of the Council of Foreign Investors of BiH.
Measures that require the introduction of a dynamic regional space for investments and regional mobility, creation of programs for digital integrations, and the way to make skilled labour more productive will be in the focus of the panel.
Although the number of investments in the Middle East has been recording an increase in recent years, the most significant investors in BiH are still European countries.
(Source: klix.ba)