Bijeljina hosted Business Leadership Conference

The third in a series of six Business Leadership Conferences organized by the EUSR Office in BiH brought together nearly one hundred participants from the business community, NGO sector, local authorities and the academia on 5 December 2016 in Bijeljina.

The participants discussed challenges and opportunities in the local business environment, the socio-economic reforms, while focusing on success stories in the business sector of Bosnia and Herzegovina and companies that operate or export to the EU market.

Same as the previous two conferences in Tuzla and Mostar, this Conference was held with the interactive participation of the citizens, students and business community of Bijeljina who were giving direct comments on all aspects of social and economic reforms through electronic voting and surveys, which will result in a comprehensive report on the opinion of BiH citizens about reforms.

In his opening speech, Melvin Asin, Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation to BiH, said that the process of socio-economic reform would take some time and that it was necessary to keep this perspective in mind because the results cannot be seen overnight. However, he added that several improvements were already visible and that was encouraging. “The overall objective is a better quality of life of all citizens, primarily through jobs creation”, Asin said.

Branko Kecman from Adventis Broker Company expressed hope that the authorities throughout the country would finally turn to private companies in order to facilitate their business operation because those companies are the ones that create new values and push the entire society and economy forward.

Arnela Smajić, from the local Sava Company, advised young people at the conference to be hard working, proactive and motivated. „We gladly hire young people. However, before getting the permanent employment they need to prove they are hard-working. They are given an opportunity and that is what is important“, emphasized Smajić.

Milenko Stevanović, the owner of Steco Centar Company, explained and presented more details about the success of his company which operates exclusively abroad.

„Our company is 100% export-oriented. I must say that we had a relatively good cooperation with the Municipality, but for everything else we did not ask or expect anything from other levels of government. It is necessary to believe in yourself and work hard before you achieve success“, he said.

After Tuzla, Mostar and Bijeljina, the Conference on Business Leadership will be taking places in Bihać, Banja Luka and Sarajevo.

Europa.ba