Bosnia - despite everything: Young entrepreneurs return home and fight bureaucracy

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The text of the Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung devotes considerable space to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The author states that „BiH is the most complicated country of the Western Balkans“, especially when you want to start a company.

The text, as reported by Deutsche Welle, begins with a description of the earlier activity of a young Bosnian woman. Until five years ago, she was selling subscriptions for Sky TV over the phone in German. Although her name is Alisa Mujkanović, while working she introduced herself as Johanna Neumayer. Having attended primary school in Munich, her German with a Bavarian accent and a fake German name helped her sell more subscriptions.

She no longer does that, and five years ago she also quit her studies to start her own business, writes Neue Zürcher Zeitung and continues: "Since then, she has been making souvenirs, toys, jewelry, and decorations from domestic wool and Bosnian wood on a loom. She learned the craft from her mother. In the meantime, they have swapped roles. Because her mother, along with ten other female workers, now works for her from home. 'Business is going well, you can make a living from it,' says Alisa Mujkanović. She is even considering starting to export her products."

The author of the text describes the success of the small company "Bogda", which turned an entire floor of a private house in Visoko into a workshop and whose best-selling item is a woolen sheep.

"Successful young entrepreneurs and Bosnia and Herzegovina – these most often do not go together. This Balkan country usually stands out for its negative economic indicators. Unemployment is 18 percent, and for young people as much as 50 percent. There are estimates with much higher percentages. No one knows the exact figures. Fewer and fewer Bosnians see their future in a country that has been ethnically divided since the war ended in 1995. The state apparatus created on the basis of the Dayton Agreement is too cumbersome and inefficient. It puts obstacles in the way of every entrepreneur.

The World Bank's "Doing Business Ranking" shows that BiH lags behind its neighboring countries. That is why many young and highly qualified experts turn their backs on this multi-ethnic country. Alisa Mujkanović is a commendable exception“, writes the Swiss newspaper, as reported by DW.

"I think about returning to the USA every day, but I don't give up easily"

The text also cites another successful example, a man in Alisa's vicinity, who also started his own business. Dženan Hodžić grows fruit and vegetables on 2,000 square meters of land belonging to his mother-in-law and an additional 8,000 square meters he has leased. The whole family works the land, supplying their products to large supermarkets.

"Under the name 'Dr. Zo', this 37-year-old is known nationwide as a rap musician. He considers himself not a typical rapper: 'Others wear gold chains, I drive a tractor.' He has grown tired of the media hype surrounding his persona; in agriculture, he seeks peace and spirituality.“

Alisa and Dženan were participants in a Swiss government program to help young people find employment by starting their own businesses, the text continues. The author also reminds of the ultramodern center in Sarajevo where young entrepreneurs from the IT sector can rent office space - Hub-387.

There he spoke with Belma Alagić, who studied and worked in Chicago but was also one of the few who returned to her country. She founded the online learning platform "Bookvar“.

"The potential for online learning seems great to her, especially in rural areas. But she underestimated clientelism.

'In public procurement, the party membership card is often more important than what you offer,' she says. Business is difficult; the first business plan was too optimistic. Does she think about returning to the USA? 'Yes, every day! But I don't give up so easily'", says Alagić.

The author cites her words that many young people do not want to get their hands dirty, have unrealistic expectations of becoming bosses as soon as they finish college, are afraid of a hard eight-hour workday, and thus remain dependent on their parents' pockets. „These are harsh words. But you can hear them unofficially from representatives of foreign development organizations, of which there are many in the country. ...Some observers see this as a socialist legacy. In Yugoslavia, the state took care that people with university degrees got suitable positions. 'Surprisingly, this way of thinking is shared by many young people who have no personal experience of Yugoslavia,' says a Western diplomat. This way of thinking also includes the fact that, according to World Bank data, 89 percent of the adult population aspires to some job in the public sector. And this is not due to greater job security or a shorter work week. An important reason is the higher salary. The salary of civil servants is as much as 40 percent higher than the salary in the private sector.

Nevertheless, concludes the author of the text „Bosnia – despite all difficulties“, Thomas Fuster, exceptions like Alisa and Dženan show that young entrepreneurs, besides courage, must also have luck: „In the case of Alisa Mujkanović, luck came in the form of a mentor, a fashion designer from Paris, who has a large number of followers on social networks. When she posted a photo of a small woolen sheep with a wooden leg, the company's turnover doubled in a very short time.“