Žarić: Create prerequisites for BiH companies to get a larger share of the network reconstruction work

Matan Žarić, General Director of "Elektroprijenos", stated for the news agency Patria that he is fully aware of the efforts of domestic companies to participate in the business opportunities that have opened up in the BiH market after 300 million KM was unblocked from the "Elektroprijenos" account.

Otherwise, BiH companies "Energoinvest" Sarajevo and "Elektroinžinjering" from Banja Luka, supported by smaller BiH firms, have sent a letter to Vjekoslav Bevanda, Chairman of the Council of Ministers, requesting that domestic bids be valued at least 20 percent better than foreign ones. This is especially important regarding investments in the power grid, which will amount to tens of millions of marks.

- Representatives of "Energoinvest" and other companies were at "Elektroprijenos" for a meeting. Our priority is for domestic companies to get the jobs; the method and technique are secondary. All our tenders must be internationally announced, and now conditions need to be created for domestic preference – Žarić told NAP.

He added that BiH should find a model through which domestic companies could participate more significantly in the network reconstruction project.

- Although it is not within our scope, domestic preference should be introduced, and it is in our interest for domestic firms to get the jobs. Prerequisites must be created for this to be implemented. A modality can be found, I am sure of it, and let's see how neighboring countries do it and just copy the model – added Žarić, explaining that there are jobs that BiH companies will not be able to do, but they can complete a large part of the work.

- For example, we don't have transformers, and someone from the region must do that, and that's fine, but for everything that domestic companies can do, conditions should be created for them to get that job – added Žarić.