“The message that should go out loud and clear at the beginning of this year’s election campaign is that the potential exists to turn Bosnia and Herzegovina’s economic fortunes around,” the High Representative and EU Special Representative said. “Individual communities have been able to do this – but the country as a whole has not, and that is because far too much political energy goes into unproductive disagreements, and not nearly enough goes into fixing the economy.”
The HR/EUSR was speaking at the opening of the GRAPOS Expo in Gracanica.
Instead of squabbling over turf, he said, political leaders should be “applying positive energy to attracting investment, liberalising the labour market, simplifying the laws and regulations on starting a new business and hiring new workers, and getting the right product quality and certification systems in place.”
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He said “these questions demand credible answers,” and he added that “it would help every voter in a fundamental and practical way if answers could be thrashed out before October. In the coming months I hope the message will get through – fix the economy and the chances of fixing all the other ills that afflict this country will increase exponentially.”
The full text of the HR/EUSR’s speech can be accessed at www.ohr.int and www.eusrbih.eu
