Bosnian associations in diaspora can attract significant investments to BiH

Bosnian-Herzegovinian associations operating in the diaspora have done a lot to promote Bosnia and Herzegovina, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria (NAP).

Bosnian associations in the diaspora, of which there are as many as several hundred, spread across the world, most often serve to gather people of BiH origin, but they also frequently promote BiH culture and tradition worldwide, and are an important factor for economic connections between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Western and other countries.

Izet Kurtalić, president of the Citizens' Association „BH Diaspora“, registered in Salzburg two years ago, says that associations where Bosnians and Herzegovinians from the diaspora gather have an equally important role as the country's embassies and consulates.

- We are like small and informal embassies, but we do equally important work in promoting our homeland Bosnia and Herzegovina – Kurtalić told Patria.

- During the May floods that hit BiH this year, in just the first 48 hours we managed to collect eight trucks of aid for our BiH, and after that additional trucks of aid that we sent to BiH. At the end of September, we also sent aid for eight families from BiH affected by the floods.

According to official data from the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the BiH diaspora has sent an average of about 3.5 billion KM annually to relatives and friends over the last ten years. This includes only money that arrived in BiH via bank accounts, but not what the diaspora spends in BiH during annual holidays, which is also a significant sum of money.

- Bosnian associations in the diaspora could do even more, but academically educated people, who hold important positions in Western countries, must actively get involved in their work. In this way, they could take many more concrete steps for BiH, primarily by lobbying our business friends to invest in BiH. Also, much more could be done to promote BiH tourism – says Kurtalić.

One of the positive results of the work of Bosnian associations in the diaspora is the Bosnia and Herzegovina stand at the oldest Christmas fair in Europe, held at the end of the year in Salzburg, which is visited by several hundred thousand people during November and December. Although until now the fair, also known as Christkindlmarkt, was reserved only for exhibitors from Austria, thanks to the association „BH Diaspora“, BiH got a stand in November where it presented food, drinks and other cultural values of Bosnia and Herzegovina for four days, writes NAP.