Press Release

Governor of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina Peter Nicholl attended a Conference of the Central and Eastern European Issues and Investors Forum that was held in Vienna on January 15, 2002. Governor Nicholl participated in a panel discussion of regional Central Bank Governors and Deputy Governors on the topic "Fitting the Next Piece of the Eurozone Puzzle".

Regarding the future of the Bosnian economy, Governor Nicholl said that BH economy has progressed quite significantly since the war, but that there is not a significant degree of urgency and the environment for private investment. "But the regulatory and tax systems are still too intrusive and complex. This is where the main focus needs to be over the year ahead. The other important area is privatisation. Progress in this area has also been too slow but I believe that Bosnia and Herzegovina must attract private foreign investments if its economy is to grow and the high level of unemployment is to be reduced.", said governor Nicholl. He stressed that the foreign investment has been coming to Bosnia but it needs to continue to increase significantly. Governor therefore invited the investors to begin look at Bosnia and Herzegovina.

During his two-day official visit to Vienna, Governor of CBBH met with the Governor of the Austrian National Bank Klaus Liebscher and the Manager of the Austrian Banknote and Security Printing Works to discuss the process on the printing of the new BH KM 200 banknote.

Governor of CBBH peter Nicholl also had the meeting with the Director of the Financial Institutions and Markets Department of the Austrian National Bank and the Head of the Banking Supervision Department of the Austrian Ministry of Finance. The purpose of these meetings was to discuss the establishment of cooperation and regular communication between the banking supervision authorities in BiH and in Austria. This is necessary because of the growing importance of Austrian-owned and supervised banks in the BiH banking sector.

Public Relations Office
Duška Jurišić