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SARAJEVO, March 9 (FENA) - Launching the economy and social sector as an integrated force in driving economic growth closer to five percent in the coming period from less than three percent annual growth today, is a fundamental goal of the Federation of BiH's Development Strategy 2021-2027.
Strategy consultant and university professor Anto Domazet told FENA that the specificity of that strategy is that there is a need for reversal, so called transformational growth with higher growth rates and greater sustainability of growth.
He added that this should be done in the context of the extraordinary pace of technological development based on the results of the 4th technological revolution based on digitization and new approaches to combating climate change and managing natural resources and the environment, which ultimately comes down to the implementation of the concept of smart growth.
Its focus is on reducing energy consumption for wealth, as well as on the innovation, research and development, decarbonisation in energy production with an increase in share of renewable energy sources, on export-oriented production and services, on reducing investment in physical capital, and increasing investment in human and social capital.
“For us, all these circumstances are important because they destroy and make our traditional export production uncompetitive, make it a weak source of added value and potential for wage and income growth for the growth of living standards, economic and social development. And all these difficult changes have to be implemented in a short period of time under extremely volatile conditions of the global economy and geopolitical tensions, with the uncertain European perspective of BiH and the slow pace of integration into NATO. Domestically, the FBiH suffers from the dysfunction of state institutions, political tensions, poor business climate, corruption and ineffective rule of law. In addition, an extremely unfavorable circumstance in our country is the acceleration of emigration, which is triggered by economic and political reasons and expresses dissatisfaction with the most productive part of society with the situation in the country,” said Domazet.
According to him, the FBiH Development Strategy is focused on the achievement of the development goals arising from the situational analysis and development opportunities of the FBiH, which should be harmonized with the European development policies and policies for the achievement of the 17 global sustainable development goals under the UN 2030 Agenda. It has five key objectives - accelerating economic development, inclusive and prosperous social development, sustainable environmental development, efficient infrastructure development, and efficient and transparent public institutions.
“In many respects, this approach is identical to the BiH Sustainable Development Framework, which is dedicated to achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The exception is that infrastructure development is a separate objective, while at the BiH level, along with four directions of development, human capital development is included. I do not see special reasons for giving infrastructure such a high priority and I think that the development of human capital is a far more priority goal,” said Domazet.
Domazet emphasized that a lot of steps should be taken in the implementation of the Strategy - to develop diaspora-focused programs, implement political, social and economic reforms that eliminate the causes of emigration and develop motivation to invest in BiH and other forms of development activities of the diaspora and the Federation of BiH itself.
In order to implement such complex goals and measures as envisaged by the FBiH Development Strategy, according to him, it will be necessary to improve the quality of public administration and the public sector in general, and increase its credibility through prevention and suppression of corruption and privileges.
“It is a misconception that we have redundancies in public administration. It is true that there are many unproductive employees, and that there is a shortage of capable, creative and credible professionals who are capable of managing such complex public projects,” said Domazet for FENA.
Representatives of institutions of all levels of government, representatives of academic and business community, as well as non-governmental organizations have participated in the process of developing the FBiH Development Strategy 2021-2027. The organization of public consultations is ongoing during which all interested citizens of the Federation of BiH are invited to discuss the working version of the development plan of the Federation of BiH. The first public hearing was in Tuzla on March 3, followed by Mostar (March 9) and Zenica (March 10).
Working version of the Federation Development Strategy 2021-2027 can be found on the website of the FBiH Institute for Development Programming, and all interested citizens are free to make suggestions for its improvement, either by email or by attending public meetings.
(FENA) A. B.
