News

Foreign Investors Council in BiH, in cooperation with the Roma Association "Roma Brothers", donated New Year's packages for 50 children from socially disadvantaged Roma families, which this association helps. The „Roma Brothers" Association, based in Sarajevo, was founded in 1994 with the aim of helping socially disadvantaged Roma families. Currently, the association has 110 members and helps about 500 Roma families.

This year, Foreign Investors Council in BiH participated and supported the organization of the Forum of Innovations, Technologies and Entrepreneurship "Sarajevo Unlimited", which was held ONLINE on November 5 and 6, 2020 under the slogan Adaptability in the New Age.

Upon invitation by the Institute for Development Planning of Sarajevo Canton (KS), representatives of the FIC participated in online workshops on defining priorities and measures in the field of economic development and labor market in order to create the Development Strategy of Sarajevo Canton 2021-2027.

The XII. Conference of wood processors entitled "People, Wood, Furniture 2020" was opened at the Banja Luka University of Business Studies on October 30, 2020, organized by the Association of Forestry and Wood Processing INTERFOB from Banja Luka in cooperation with the WOOD Cluster Banja Luka, City Banja Luka, the City Development Agency CIDEA - Banja Luka, and the Institution for Vocational Adult Education WMTA Banja Luka.

As a result of long-term cooperation between the of Foreign Investors Council in BiH and the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ GmbH), from February 2021,  FIC will organize a webinar for its members to present opportunities for development cooperation with the private sector through develoPPP.de program.

The sixth „Sarajevo Arbitration Days" were held online on October 23, 2020. This year's Sarajevo Arbitration Days were dedicated to arbitration practice during the COVID-19 pandemic and the opportunities that arise despite the challenges.

United Nations Development Program in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNDP BiH), with support of Sweden, at a ceremony organized at the International Center for Children and Youth Novo Sarajevo in Sarajevo today proclaimed the SDG Business Pioneers in BiH for the second time ever.

Violeta and representatives of 8 safe houses in BiH signed donation agreement

Representatives of the United Nations (UN), the British Embassy in BiH and Violeta organized a ceremonial signing of a donation agreement with representatives of eight safe houses in Sarajevo.

The project "100 largest in BiH" which is traditionally organized by Poslovne novine in co-organization with the Foreign Trade Chamber of BiH and the credit rating agency LRC Sarajevo, and the general sponsor EuroExpress d.o.o. Banja Luka, aims to show that BiH has a very successful companies that are recognized in both domestic and international markets, and among which were many FIC members. The award ceremony for the most successful companies according to the business results in 2019 was held on September 29, 2020 in Sarajevo.

This year, Kakanj Cement Factory (HeidelbergCement Group) had the honor of receiving the Platinum Creditworthiness Certificate of Excellence, as a first company in Bosnia and Herzegovina who received this award. Analytical credit rating agency Bisnode, every year organizes the awarding ceremony of international recognitions for the quality of business to the best companies in BiH.

On September 23, the company ArcelorMittal Zenica officially announced the completion of two very important environmental protection projects at the plants of the agglomeration and steel, with a total value of more than 15 million KM. The environmental protection project in Zenica included the construction of a second hybrid filter on the SM-6 in the agglomeration and secondary dedusting at the convector Steelworks, which will give the citizens of Zenica a better environment, and the company ArcelorMittal Zenica met the requirements of the environmental permit.

(preliminary data for 2019 and 2020 and official data for 2018)

Following approval by the Capital Markets Board (CMB), shareholders also approved the merger of all operations under a single entity by Şişecam Group, a global player in all core areas of the glass industry and in the field of chemicals comprising soda and chromium compounds.

Due to a property dispute between two companies from Sarajevo, more than 80 workers were physically prevented from accessing their jobs for contempt of court, raising the issue of legal certainty and the rule of law in the context of attracting foreign investors.

This year as part of the project "100 largest in BiH”, organized by Poslovne novine from Sarajevo in co-organization of the Foreign Trade Chamber of BiH and LRC, with the general sponsor Euroexpress Express Mail, was realized the third regional panel conference entitled ”The export challenge – We have to move forward”. Given the current situation regarding the coronavirus-caused pandemic, this year’s conference was held online, on September 2 at 14:00 via the Zoom application and gathered about 150 participants from BiH and the region.

At the end of the summer, FIC Executive office started activities on the preparation of a new report of the Foreign Investors Council in BiH, titled "Business Barometer 2020".

On August 5, 2020 in Zavidovici (BiH) was held a wood-technological and tourist conference called ‘Tajan 2020’, organized by the wood cluster "Furniture and Wood" and supported by FBiH Chamber of Commerce and other partners from BiH and region.

The FIC requested that the Council of Ministers, in accordance with its powers, address certain outstanding issues in the segment of the pandemic caused by the COVID-19.

Yesterday, a volunteer action was held in Sarajevo, organized by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Italian Embassy in BiH, the Mountaineering Ski Association 'Center' Sarajevo, Mountaineering and Ecological Association 'Romania' Pale, and Terra Dinarica Association from Sarajevo.

The Executive Director of FIC, Sanja Miovcic, met with Mr. Nedim Hamzić, the new Secretary General of the American Chamber of Commerce in BiH (AmCham BiH), a non-governmental organization and part of the European and global network of AmChams, whose task is to establish a platform to develop business opportunities and promote high standards of business practice and strengthen partnerships between the business community and BiH government bodies at all levels.

Bosna Bank International (BBI) within the Sarajevo Business Forum (SBF) 2020 and the initiative "We can do it", and in cooperation with the project "Diaspora for Development" organized the 5th SBF online session "DIGITAL RECOVERY: Support for Digital Transformation of BH companies as a response to COVID-19. By the way, "Diaspora for Development" (D4D) is a project of the Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees of BiH and the Government of Switzerland, in partnership with UNDP BiH and IOM BiH. The moderators of the 5th SBF session were Eddie Custovic and Damir Mitric, members of the Board of Directors of the BH Futures Foundation.

At the beginning of July, the FIC sent an initiative of the FIC members from the tobacco industry to the competent BiH institutions in the form of an appeal to suppress the illegal trade in tobacco products, which increased especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A comprehensive analytical review of foreign investment in the Federation of BiH in the year of the projected global recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic was the main point of the 7^th session of the FBiH Council for Foreign Investors held on June 24, via a video link at the FBiH Government headquarters in Sarajevo, chaired by Federal Minister of Trade Zlatan Vujanovic.

In an interview for the Banja Luka''s portal Srpska Info, SHP Celex production director Dragana Obradović and sales manager Mario Blažević talk about the challenges that this Banja Luka-based company faced due to the enormous demand for toilet paper and difficult transport, and how to quickly adapt to new situation on market.