The meeting opened with addresses by the mayor of Ilidža Municipality, Mr Nermin Muzur, and by Mario Nenadić, director of the Employers’ Association of the Federation of BiH, and continued with a round table on cooperation between BiH and Slovenia and on the opportunities for cooperation between the best Slovenian and Bosnian-Herzegovinian companies.
Those present were also addressed by Mr Adnan Smailbegović, president of the Employers’ Association, and Mr Joc Pečečnik, president of the Slovenian Business Club, who jointly concluded that cooperation and economic exchange between Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina has been strengthening again in recent years, after temporarily slowing during the coronavirus pandemic. Last year the two countries recorded a record two billion euros of economic exchange, 20% more than in 2021.
Direct foreign investment is also of great importance for stronger economic cooperation, and Slovenian capital ranks fourth in Bosnia and Herzegovina. BiH is a place of opportunity for Slovenian companies, not only because of its geographic proximity but also because of geopolitical developments which lately — first the coronavirus crisis and later the war in Ukraine — have pushed companies to broaden and redirect their supply chains and so reduce their dependence on individual sources of supply.
