prijava
SARAJEVO, January 2 (FENA) - The interest of Chinese investment companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina is surprisingly large. The Embassy of BiH in China has been contacted by major Chinese companies that would like to invest in BiH, primarily in the field of energy and infrastructure. But failure to realize this kind of cooperation is our mistake and the problem of the BiH side, believes the Ambassador of BiH to the People's Republic of China Anton Rill.
Author: Jelena Marković
In an interview with FENA the ambassador explains that the reason for this is the wrong idea that the Bosnian-Herzegovinian business community has about China, still based on cheap Chinese goods of suspicious quality and wrong opinion that China is still a developing country.
"That is absolutely wrong, because today's China is the second economy of the world, right after the United States," the Ambassador said.
“China of today has a space program and high technology that is shoulder to shoulder to the world-renowned manufacturers. China is no longer the country of bicycles and small homes, but the land of electric vehicles and architectural wonders that are powered by sustainable energy. China is the land of the future,” Rill stressed.
Asserting that there are no open issues between BiH and China, and that the relations between the two countries are examples of true and friendly relations and successful political cooperation, BiH Ambassador pointed out that there should be no obstacles for raising economic cooperation to a higher level.
What he sees as an objective obstacle is, apart from the geographical distance, the fact that BiH alone cannot produce and provide sufficient quantities of any goods for the huge Chinese market. For this reason, it would seem that the establishment of free economic zones in BiH would be a viable solution for the benefit of both sides, leading to the creation of new jobs and increase of BiH exports.
“BiH would provide locations under favorable conditions, including the complete documentation, and the Chinese side would be willing to invest the necessary funds. The Embassy of BiH in China has repeatedly been in a position to hear such views from individual Chinese corporations, associations and companies,” Rill said.
The Ambassador believes that our country is lacking incentive for the initiative "16 + 1", through which China and its Cooperation Secretariat offers many projects for Central and Eastern Europe.
“While the other 15 countries are competing in being concrete and presenting their projects as soon as possible to profit from their realization, it takes us a long time to agree on the kind of projects that we would like to offer.
If BiH were to be placed on China’s tourist maps, it would be a significant source of income for our economy. The Embassy of BiH in Beijing receives daily inquiries from Chinese citizens who would travel to the Republic of Serbia, wanting to visits the places and locations where "Valter Defends Sarajevo" and "The Bridge" films were made, as well as monuments from World War II, Medjugorje and Neum , which is a good indicator of knowledge and interest of Chinese citizens for BiH,” stressed the Ambassador.
He also noted that PR China has great interest in developing bilateral relations with BiH as one of 16 Central and Eastern European countries and as one of the countries that welcomed and supported the initiative of China's President Xi Jinping, "One Belt - One Road."
"Thanks to the excellent political relations between the two friendly countries, excellent conditions are being created for the expansion of cooperation in the field of economy, education, culture, tourism and all other aspects," said Rill.
Finally, the Ambassador of BiH to China said that in the last 40 years this most populated country in the world has developed the highest concentration of industrial and productive capacity, thereby raising the overall standard of living for its people, while helping the economies of neighboring countries.
That is, as he concluded, one of the greatest achievements of human race.
(FENA) S. R.
