The second in a series of six Business Leadership Conferences organized by the EUSR Office in BiH brought together more than one hundred thirty participants from the business community, NGO sector, local authorities and the academia in Mostar on 23 November 2016.

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

The Business Leadership Conference in Mostar, as the one previously held in Tuzla, featured an interactive participation from the audience who used electronic voting to directly comment all segments of socio economic reforms. In his opening speech, Matt Field, Head of Political at the EUSR Office, said that the “one step at a time“ approach means reforms require patience because they represent long process that, nevertheless, brings results in the end. “The first of three years of reforms implementation has gone by and we can already see the improvements. The most important improvement is reflected in the increased number of new jobs”, said Field.

One of the major conclusions was put forward by Ivan Jurilj, REDAH Director, who said that without the financial, institutional and political stability of the region it would be impossible to expect some progress in any aspect of life, especially in business sector. “The key to success is partnership that will attract the foreign investors and encourage local people who have money to make investments”, said Jurilj.

Company N: Soft is even now using Swedish model of six working hours, which, according to Ivana Perković, already yields the results. According to Dijana Marić, the Violeta Company, one of the most famous Bosnian brands, owes its success to business principle that all important decisions are made in the line between employees, owners and customers.

One of the most attractive observations was presented by Vedran Vukman from Vyoocam Croatia who started business upon his return from the United States. “Entrepreneurial lessons we learned in America are: we should not be afraid of failure, there is no overnight success and one should work hard regardless of strong competition. My family came back from America, we have started a business because we strongly believed in success,” said Vukman.

After Tuzla and Mostar, the Business Leadership Conferences will be taking place in Bijeljina, Bihać, Banja Luka and Sarajevo.