Čengić: Protests are harming us and threatening jobs

The work of economic entities and employees is being hindered by daily protests, which will certainly lead to lower budget revenues and threaten jobs. Those who wanted to invest in BiH are now giving up on it, said the President of the Employers' Association of FBiH, Safudin Čengić, for the BiH news agency Patria (NAP).

At the end of February, the Employers' Association of FBiH developed a set of measures for exiting the economic and social crisis for the period 2014-2017. Some of them include: reducing the unemployment rate, increasing the export-to-import ratio, relieving the economy, and ensuring standards for social categories of the population... According to Čengić, "some measures are short-term, some are medium-term, and some will take years to implement.".

Čengić told NAP that a meeting has already been scheduled with the Prime Minister of the FBiH Government, Nermin Nikšić, to discuss how to implement these measures or how to act jointly to realize them.

- What is happening now, these blockades, are having an extremely negative impact on the operations of business entities in Sarajevo, Tuzla, Zenica, and other cities. We truly cannot accept or understand that this is how they are trying to solve the problem of a large number of unemployed and socially vulnerable people, because employers and working people are blocked in their activities every day. We need to sit down and find solutions, and under no circumstances should further blockades practically complicate an already difficult situation in Sarajevo Canton, the Federation, and even in the whole of BiH – stated Čengić.

Otherwise, economic indicators for the upcoming period are not favorable. This was confirmed to NAP by the Director of the Indirect Taxation Authority, Miro Džakula, who stated that there is a "decline in investments, a general decline in turnover and trade, and that entrepreneurs need help."