29 June, 2017
Sarajevo, FBiH 

The Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has no doubts that the only way to overcome the current obstacles that his country is facing, is the collaboration of different entities both on local and regional level.

“We don’t need to think in the same way, but we should work together on the same task”, he told the Balkan Forum.

He was surprised to discover after accepting the PM’s position in 2014 that different actors within the entity, who focus on the same problem, didn’t cooperate with each other.

“First thing I’ve noticed was (the fact) that the government works alone, academia is absent, while NGOs are criticizing everything, both justified and unjustified issues.”

After a wave of criticism from different NGOs, the government called Amnesty International to join in creating the new employment bill.

He said: “We called both Academia and NGOs to work together with us. Government failure isn’t desirable to anyone, and so the failure of NGOs or Academia. We have joint problems to solve."

He admits however that cooperation might be a difficult process.

"....everyone agrees that reforms are needed, which means, they want a change, but when they face it personally, people still aren’t ready to change themselves. They want changes, but they’re still not ready to change themselves.“ 

As an economist by profession, he has no doubts that regional cooperation has a significant role in the development of economies.

“The mulching of economic space is a very destructive process. Take a look at the European Union. It’s not a state, it’s a functional market of capital and products”, he pointed out.

He told us “there’s no excuse for not moving the obstacles (so that) the trade, the exchange of goods, capital, and even human resources can develop freely.” 

“The world is globalized and those who are blind to see it will be damaged, those who notice that, and (are flexible enough) work on changes, and move the barriers, will profit,“

According to him the biggest potential for development in BiH lies, among others, in tourism which without any development strategy implemented by the government has brought an income of 2,5 billions of Convertible Marks. 

Video Interview with fadil Novalica