Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mirko Šarović opened today in the Holiday Inn Hotel in Sarajevo a four-day regional seminar ...

Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mirko Šarović opened today in the Holiday Inn Hotel in Sarajevo a four-day regional seminar on international investment agreements "Training course for economies in transition on a new generation of international investment policies". The organisers of the event are the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina; UNCTAD Secretariat (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), University of Kiel and Islamic Development Bank.

In his keynote speech, Minister Šarović expressed his satisfaction with Bosnia and Herzegovina being the host of this international seminar that would discuss issues of great importance for economic development. He also stressed that Bosnia and Herzegovina closely follows developments in international investment policies. In order to encourage foreign investment, Bosnia and Herzegovina has so far concluded 38 bilateral agreements on the promotion and protection of investments.

“International investment agreements contribute to attracting foreign investment and thus have a positive impact on the economic development of countries. Due to lack of own capital, countries today are generally committed to attracting foreign investment. Off course, we cannot ignore protection of own investments in the territory of another Contracting party as another important role of these agreements. The importance of these agreements is best illustrated by the number of concluded agreements so far in the world (over – 3000) and in Bosnia and Herzegovina -38 in total”, Minister Šarović said.

During the first day of the seminar it was pointed out that national regulations and the network of international investment agreements provide a legal framework for foreign investment in the territory of a host country. Investors require a predictable and stable environment without regulatory changes that would affect their business. On the other hand, economic developments in the world necessitate occasional changes to national regulations and finding new solutions in international investment agreements.

As a net-recipient of investments country, Bosnia and Herzegovina tries to follow developments in international investment policies, and to adequately respond through its national investment policy and international investment agreement it concludes. Representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations will take an active role in order to present the experiences of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the best way possible.

The seminar was organized with the aim of improving the investment policies of the participating countries (countries of the Western Balkans and the former Soviet Union), mainly in the part related to international investment agreements. Numerous international organizations and institution will give their presentations, such as UNCTAD, Kiel University, the European Commission, the International Institute for Sustainable Development, United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), Cairo Regional Centre for international commercial arbitration and others.