Speeches

I would like to take this opportunity to extend my congratulations to the BiH Presidency and Foreign Ministry. In the course of the last year BiH has chaired the SEECP process ably. Sarajevo has hosted the SEECP foreign ministers and parliamentarians; and it has coordinated the crucial follow-up meetings to the London, Palermo and Thessaloniki Conf [...]

We are holding this discussion at an exciting point in this country’s political development. The Federation Parliament has recently approved the necessary amendment to the constitution and the implementing law that will allow for the direct election of mayors this year. On 2 October the citizens in municipalities across BiH will choose the men and [...]

The Federation Parliament has just approved legislation enabling the direct election of mayors. The pressure to do this came from a groundswell of popular opinion, some of it orchestrated by the mayors themselves. Their rationale is clear. Direct elections will provide them with a mandate that will increase their effectiveness.

One of the advantages of speaking about the economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina before an international audience – even an international audience as knowledgeable as this one – is that the reality is significantly better than the reputation. What I am going to tell you about Bosnia and Herzegovina today is largely positive – and it’s not based on spi [...]

It is accepted wisdom that when waiters and taxi-drivers begin giving you stock tips it’s time to get out of the market. There’s probably some truth in that. When share trading assumes the kind of characteristics we more normally associate with a lottery, the market is erring on the side of “unnatural exuberance”. But we are far from that point [...]

Just five years ago there was no system to speak of that supported SMEs in BiH. The whole orientation of economic policy, such as it was at that time, was based on a hopeless attempt to resurrect the old industrial conglomerates that were the centerpiece of the socialist economy of former Yugoslavia. It was as if economic planners in Pittsburg or [...]

It’s a pleasure to be here. Today I’d like to talk about the BiH business environment. I know it’s a subject we all care deeply about. It is my full-time concern. I would like to start on an upbeat note. Things are getting better here and the business environment has improved. – not just in small or peripheral ways, but in significant ways tha [...]

This seminar is taking place as Bosnia and Herzegovina enters a critical point in its effort to meet the conditions set forth for membership of Partnership for Peace. The coming weeks and months will determine whether or not BiH is able to meet those conditions and take the first step toward membership in the Euro-Atlantic community.

Gathered at this conference is an impressive body of specialist expertise in the oil and oil derivatives market. I will confine my remarks to a general overview of the market, and the issue of corruption. Corruption is endemic in the BiH oil market, and steps must be taken to eliminate it. This market is potentially a source of significant wealt [...]

I am pleased to be able, once again, to brief the Security Council on developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I am particularly pleased to be doing so alongside the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Adnan Terzic. I think that innovation exemplifies the stage BiH has now reached, in which the International Community’s presence there needs to wor [...]