EU4Business project announced today the commencement of 34 development projects worth EUR 4.7 million to assist tourism, agri-food and rural development sectors and foster entrepreneurship in Bosnia and Herzegovina, thus contributing to increased competitiveness and job retention and creation.

In total EUR 10 million of EU grants is available under the EU4Business to stimulate the BiH economy and help enterprises, farmers and entrepreneurs save jobs. In addition, the project helps young entrepreneurs and women to start their own business, and also make new investments in the sector of tourism, rural areas and agriculture to enable local communities in BiH recover more quickly.

In addition to this support, the EU has announced EUR 73.5 million to help mitigate socio-economic consequences of the COVID-19 in BiH as well as EUR 250 million of macro-financial assistance.

Head of the EU Delegation to BiH and EU Special Representative Ambassador Sattler stated: “I am happy to announce our support to business community in BiH that followed quickly after we have provided immediate assistance in medical equipment to help country to fight COVID-19. We mark today the start of 34 new projects of support to companies, farmers and entrepreneurs that will focus on the use of new ICT technologies in agri-production, tourism and employment, severely affected by the pandemics. These projects are only the beginning of the EU assistance to the recovery of the affected BiH economy. I am looking forward to many more projects to come, because only together we can heal the losses and respond properly to the country’s needs”.

The 34 projects were selected according to criteria of 4 Calls for Proposals published in 2019-2020 within the EU4Business project: Development partnerships in tourism, Entrepreneurship, Farmers and cooperatives engaged in the primary production and SMEs and cooperatives working on adding value to agricultural products and marketing.

More details on each project can be found on the EU4Business interactive map: https://eu4business.ba/en/interactive-map/.

EU4Business is the European Union’s project aiming to strengthen Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capacity for economic growth and employment by fostering competitiveness and innovation in selected sectors. EU4Business is worth EUR 16.1, out of which EUR 15 million funded by the European Union and the EUR 1.1 million funded by Federal Republic of Germany. The project is jointly implemented by GIZ, UNDP and ILO, from April 2018 to March 2022.

For more information, please contact: EU4business@giz.de, or visit: www.eu4business.ba.