French Ambassador Visited the CBBH

The Ambassador of France to Bosnia and Herzegovina, His Excellency Roland Gilles visited on February 9, the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina and talked with the Governor Kemal Kozarić, Ph.D.

The Ambassador was mostly interested in the situation about the execution of the international obligations of BH, and he emphasized that there was the concern that BH did not want or could not execute all the obligations. Governor Kozarić explained to the Ambassador the overall situation, and the role of the CBBH as the fiscal agent. The position of the CBBH is that the international legislation has priority over the domestic one, which was confirmed by the Constitution Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that all the obligations need to be met in order to prevent the further jeopardizing of Bosnia and Herzegovina reputation.

The Ambassador was interested in the position of the Governor related to the current situation in BH, and the economic projections of BH development considering the total situation in the Region. Governor Kozarić pointed out that BH, as each small and open economy, is affected by the situation in EU and in the Euro zone, and he clarified that the CBBH has no enough instruments to fight the crisis, those that the developed European countries have, therefore the European road is very important for BH. 

The Governor introduced the macroeconomic indicators of BH to the Ambassador and the data on economic cooperation between France and BH, which is estimated as having space for improvement. He pointed out that the problem is lack of the external funding resources, and directing of the commercial banks to the domestic resources which additionaly makes the funding models more expensive. However, although BH has internal problems, it still has a lot of unused potentials, especially in the area of energy, agriculture, healthy food, metal industry, tourism, continuation of privatization.

Cooperation between France and BH is estimated as insufficient, and the collocutors exposed several ideas how to make the cooperation more concrete in the future. They agreed on the need to intensify the cooperation soon, and it was agreed to have more regular exchange of data and organizing of the business activities in which the investors will get the complete insight in BH potentials and all its good sides.

At the end, the Ambassador Gilles expressed the support to the work of CBBH and pointed its significance in maintaining the financial and monetary stability of BH.

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