Construction of settlements for Arabs in BiH an alibi for poor governance: No investments in production of new values

What about foreign investments in BiH? Our country is not receiving as much investment as it should and as was already promised in that sentence about 100,000 jobs in eight years. In some other, distant time we had five-year development plans. In this new time, those plans have been reduced to one sentence and one promise by our leaders, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria.

So, what do we have today? Still a catastrophic number of unemployed but able-bodied people. In the Federation alone, there are some 380,000. The problem of employment, development, and lifting the country out of poverty is far too serious. We are confronting ourselves, our ability to do something and give people hope. All the time, there is talk of emigration precisely because of the poor social situation. It is not just one nation leaving; people of all nations are emigrating. And no one should be comforted by the fact that people are also leaving neighboring countries. People are seeking a good or better life that their own state does not know how to provide.

Government without a timetable

Unfortunately, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, direct foreign investments are not even mentioned. There is no word about their amount last year. It is known that in 2014, there were only 384 million euros of direct foreign investments. Unfortunately, although even this sum is small compared to investments in neighboring countries, the statistical data does not show whether banks and loans taken by our state from them are included among the investors. So, will the latest EBRD loans also be presented as investments?

The only thing that works well here are those sentences of promise. There is constant talk of prosperity, especially of tourist destinations in BiH, but there are no concrete improvements from that.

Unfortunately, our leaders live in some parallel world far removed from the existential troubles of ordinary people. They, unfortunately, have no idea how difficult and long-lasting the fight against poverty is. They do not know how much sacrifice and intelligence that fight requires, how much care for development, employing people, and opening productive jobs, all with minimal corruption.

Our leaders are relying on Arab investments, which are manifesting as large construction sites, from the settlement in Popovići near Ilijaš, on Ilidža in Nadosjek. In Osenik, where large settlements with residential buildings and lakes have sprung up for Arab buyers, and especially the tourist settlement Buroj in Trnovo, which is supposed to be, allegedly, the largest investment in Southeast Europe.

Nothing has been done for ordinary people

The state has no plans for the dozens of specially built settlements. This is also shown by the attitude towards possible supply services, maintenance, and numerous grain needs. Already, there are no answers to many questions. The authorities are doing nothing to develop agriculture, livestock farming, processing and food industries, which will adequately serve the new and demanding residents of the Sarajevo area. The authorities have not even begun to plan the simplest answers to these changes in circumstances that have been ongoing for two years.

Promising jobs is one thing, but providing adequate business and economic answers is something completely different. So, this country needs new jobs, production of new values, and pulling the majority of this country's citizens out of hopelessness and poverty.

Settlements owned by Arabs today are treated by this government in BiH as some kind of alibi that they have done something serious on the economic front. That is far from the truth. They have done nothing worth mentioning. The employment bureaus still have an identical huge number of unemployed educated and quality young people.

All the settlements that have been built and practically sold to wealthy Arab guests will not improve the unemployment structure. It is economically problematic that these will mostly remain seasonal visitors. Indirectly, these constructions have led to short-term budget fillings, enriching new Bosniak entrepreneurs and builders. And so far, nothing more than that.