Qatari companies to form fund for investment in BiH

Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Zlatko Lagumdžija held a bilateral meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar Khalid bin Mohammed Al Attiyah during the Sarajevo Business Forum, discussing the concretization of the agreement on Qatari investments in BiH reached during the April meeting of the two ministers, reports the Patria News Agency.

Minister Al Attiyah informed Lagumdžija that the Qatari side will form an investment fund through which five major Qatari companies will invest in infrastructure and energy projects, banking, and other sectors in BiH. Additionally, the Qatari side will establish a Friendship Fund for BiH through which it will finance projects aimed at youth employment. Qatar has established similar funds in Japan, Tunisia, and Haiti, which finance projects focused on creating new jobs, primarily for young people, through a type of "soft" loan.

The interlocutors agreed to finalize and coordinate all details of these activities at the expert level in the coming months.

Lagumdžija participated in a panel discussion on the topic: "Regional Strategic Outlook," which was held at the beginning of the international investment conference Sarajevo Business Forum 2014. During the discussion, Lagumdžija assessed that renewed regional connectivity, membership in the European Union and NATO, the rule of law, and direct foreign investments are instruments for overcoming the obstacles faced by the countries of the region in the transition process, or rather, tools for achieving regional strategic goals.

He particularly emphasized the importance of renewed regional connectivity for the further development of the Balkans and assessed that its three main pillars are cooperation in the areas of infrastructure, energy, and trade, citing as examples the construction projects of Corridor V, Corridor VIII, and Corridor X, the Trans Adriatic and Ionian-Adriatic pipelines (TAP/IAP), South Stream, as well as CEFTA and bilateral trade agreements.