prijava
SARAJEVO, July 8 (FENA) - Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina Denis Zvizdić ha led a delegation of the BiH Council of Ministers at the 7th 16 + 1 Summit of 16 Prime Ministers of Central and Eastern Europe with Prime Minister of the People's Republic of China in, Sofia, Bulgaria.
Zvizdić participated in a plenary meeting of Heads of Governments of the participating countries of the 16 + 1 Summit, where he praised the initiative of the People's Republic of China, which showed persistence and great engagement in strengthening the ties and cooperation of the states.
“Our friendly cooperation connects the two continents and includes a fifth of the world's population, is taking place in the political, cultural, social and economic sphere, and Bosnia and Herzegovina is extremely interested to further improve and strengthen ties with the People's Republic of China and countries Central and Eastern Europe.
Therefore, I am very pleased that this initiative continues to be developed and strengthened, and I emphasize the commitment of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the overall cooperation within the 16 + 1 mechanism. The seventh summit is proof of the sustainability of our partnership and is a good way to strengthen our bilateral and economic relations,” said Zvizdić.
He pointed out that Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country whose main foreign policy objective is to obtain a candidate status for membership in the European Union, and in this regard it is working continuously to fulfill the conditions by the European Union and in that regard, continue with the implementation of numerous reform measures.
“The reforms we have implemented have already resulted in positive indicators, of which I especially emphasize GDP growth of 3 percent, and the opening of nearly 50,000 new jobs. All vital economic indicators in Bosnia and Herzegovina, export growth, industrial production growth, tourism growth, are on the rise. We hope that we will receive a positive opinion from the European Commission for obtaining a candidate status in the first half of 2019, "Zvizdić said.
Chairman of the Council of Ministers especially expressed interest in continuing and intensifying economic cooperation with China.
As part of the Belt and Road Initiative, so far, we have signed number of important agreements and improved our relations. New possibilities for connecting business people from our countries have been opened and investments have been initiated, especially in the field of energy and infrastructure. I am very proud with the fact that as of May this year, Chinese citizens can travel to Bosnia and Herzegovina without a visa, which facilitates their travel and which will certainly contribute to the increase in the number of tourists and facilitate the travel of business people and investors. For this reason, we are very interested in establishing a direct airlink between Beijing and Sarajevo,” said Zvizdić.
Zvizdić stressed that in addition to tourism, the energy and transport sectors remain the priority sectors for BiH, as they are the bearers of the country's biggest potential for domestic and foreign investments.
“Continuation of this process opens the opportunities for many other projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the near future. This year, for the fourth time in a row, BiH companies took part in the CHINA - CEEC EXPO 2018 investment and trade fair, which was held in early June 2018 in Ningbo, China,” Zvizdić underlined.
He emphasized that Bosnia and Herzegovina concluded the negotiations with China on cooperation in the field of veterinary medicine, which will allow businesses to enter these markets, and that today's signing of the Agreement on animal health and quarantine between the People's Republic of China and the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina is an important step towards that goal.
He reminded that the PR China will be a partner country at the next International Trade Fair in Mostar, in 2019, and took the opportunity to invite investors to come to Bosnia and Herzegovina next year.
He also said that the date has been set for a 16 + 1 conference on innovations from 5 to 8 November 2018 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that Bosnia and Herzegovina is particularly interested in organizing the 4th conference of Transport Ministers of China and the Central and Eastern Europe in 2019.
He expects significant results and activities from this meeting at the level of heads of government of the People's Republic of China and 16 countries of Europe in Sofia, which will be of great importance for future cooperation and should contribute to new ideas for strengthening economic ties between Europe and China.
(FENA) S. R.
