Technical Cooperation of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina with other Central Banks and Economic Institutions

The Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CBBH) has long-standing cooperation with other central banks, especially with banks in the region: Serbia, Montenegro, and Croatia.

A Protocol on Cooperation with the National Bank of Serbia was signed in 2008, establishing a business cooperation relationship in the form of study visits, seminars, workshops, expert projects, and similar activities. From the signing of the protocol until today, a total of 39 officials from various departments and sectors visited Belgrade from the CBBH, and 45 CBBH officials visited the National Bank of Serbia through study visits.

A protocol on cooperation with the Central Bank of Montenegro was signed slightly later, in 2010, and cooperation was established in the same way as with the National Bank of Serbia.

Although a protocol has not been officially signed, regular study visits are conducted with the Croatian National Bank with the help of established collegial contacts with heads of sectors and departments.

The goal of study visits is for officials, whether hosts or guests, to exchange knowledge, experiences, and ideas in a dynamic and sustainable manner, and to gain insight into practical models that they apply or will apply in the future in performing their tasks.

Protocols on business cooperation enable central banks to become partner institutions and to establish a network of contacts that will accelerate business processes for both parties and facilitate the resolution of business issues. Officials find practical work and practical insight into the business processes of other banking institutions, similar in organization and structure, most beneficial.

In addition to banks in the region, technical cooperation has also been established with the Deutsche Bundesbank and the National Bank of the Czech Republic, which played a major role in improving the systems and procedures of the Human Resources Department of the CBBH in the Twinning Light project titled "Strengthening Human Resource Management Capacity in the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina".

The six-month project resulted in improved processes in the areas of staff training and employment. After its implementation, the project was presented to the public in February 2010 with a press conference attended by representatives of the human resources sectors of commercial banks in BiH, central banks from the region, and beyond. The significance of such cooperation is highlighted by the fact that the same project with the same goal was implemented a year later at the National Bank of Serbia.

In addition to cooperation with central banks through which it continuously improves its business processes, the CBBH can also boast cooperation with St. Antony's College Oxford, with whom it completed the implementation of a three-year technical cooperation in May of this year. During this period, two very successful conferences in the economic field were held in Sarajevo, attended by, among others, members of the Presidency of BiH, finance ministers, central bank governors, and other eminent domestic and foreign guests. 

The current project, in which the entire CBBH is involved, began at the start of 2014 with the signing of an Agreement on Bilateral Assistance between the Swiss Government (Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs) and the CBBH.  This project has enabled visits by top experts from the Swiss Research Institute, who have held and will continue to hold workshops for CBBH officials. It has also enabled our officials to attend conferences in Switzerland, and the most significant contribution of the project is the opportunity for our officials to spend six months in Switzerland as part of study programs. Officials whose research proposals in the field of economics are deemed most useful by the organizer are eligible to participate in the six-month study visits, and these officials, with a mentor in Switzerland, complete their specialized/research papers. Such papers can serve as a basis for writing a master's or doctoral thesis and represent a valuable reference for publication in scientific journals.

Workshops lasting from seven to fourteen days, held by eminent professors in the field of economics during the past and current year, have been described as demanding, extensive, but to date, the most high-quality and beneficial for the officials.

In 2011, the focus of cooperation was on the IPA2008 technical cooperation program with the European Central Bank (ECB) and partner central banks of the Eurosystem, which is a continuation of the project "Assessment of CBBH Needs" with the ECB/Eurosystem.  The CBBH and the ECB successfully completed an 18-month technical cooperation program implemented in cooperation with seven Eurosystem central banks: Germany, Greece, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, and Slovenia. Experts from the central banks of Bulgaria and Romania also participated in this program.

The project covered the following business areas: statistics, economic modeling, financial stability, legislative harmonization with the EU, coordination of European integration processes, and information technology. In October 2012, after the completion of the technical cooperation program between the CBBH and the ECB, the EU, which financed the project, assessed it as its most ambitious and most successful project implemented in BiH to date. The EU's post-implementation monitoring report confirmed the previously assigned 5A rating. The 5A rating represents the highest possible score in an evaluation.

With the help of technical cooperation projects, the CBBH has continued to strengthen its institutional capacities and implement activities aimed at approaching and aligning with the standards of the European System of Central Banks and the Eurosystem.

In 2013, the project task "Financial Accounts Statistics" within the sectoral project of EU support for statistical institutions in BiH as part of public administration reform was finalized, and further activities under the EU's pre-accession assistance (IPA) in the field of statistics continued, including multi-beneficiary technical assistance projects aimed at strengthening the statistical system in BiH, financed by EU IPA funds.

Based on the Memorandum between the CBBH and GIZ, the goal of the technical cooperation program, with financial support from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of the Federal Republic of Germany (BMZ), was to strengthen the capacities of the CBBH to improve the preparation process for accession to the European System of Central Banks and harmonization with standards applied in the EU. Activities under the "Strengthening Public Institutions in BiH" program, which lead to improved CBBH operations through the integration of the existing IT system and the development of new applications, were successfully implemented. Capacity building was also achieved through advisory assistance and staff training in four areas: risk management, statistics, cash management, and IT. The project ensured the continuous introduction of EU standards and the continuation of certain activities initiated within previous projects with the ECB. 

In the implementation of the second phase in 2014, the upgrade of the Business Intelligence system with an application for compiling and disseminating investment portfolio statistics, as well as the establishment of the Panorama Necto statistical web platform, also based on BI technology, stand out. The second phase of the "Strengthening Public Institutions" program is currently underway.

The significance of technical cooperation within IPA, as well as with GIZ and SECO, lies in its well-planned, high degree of ownership, which guarantees the success and sustainability of the results.