Norwegian and BiH businesses discuss new ventures at NBBA seminar

Trade relations between Norway and BiH are getting stronger. Investors and business communities from the two countries are actively exploring further opportunities, Ambassador Olav Reinertsen said at the Norway BiH Business Association seminar on metal and engineering and wood industry.

Around 60 businesspeople from the two countries, including owners and representatives of companies which already operate in Norway and BiH, attended the seminar which highlighted successful Norway-BiH business examples.

„NBBA has become an important tool to boost business ties between our two countries and to attract more Norwegian businesses and investors, within ICT, renewable energy tourism, wood and metals and engineering industries,“ Mr Reinertsen told the seminar organized together with BiH’s  Foreign Trade Chamber.

„It looks very promising and I am of course delighted that the result of this initiative have exceeded my own expectations,“ Ambassador Reinertsen told the seminar organised together with BiH’ Foreign Trade Chamber.

The Chamber’s President Ahmet Egrlic said political problems affecting business climate are preventing business relations between the two countries to achieve its full potential.

„If we look at the volume of trade and having in mind the capacities and potential of both countries, we cannot be satisfied. We need to work on increasing trade,” Mr Egrlic said.

The Norwegian companies featured during the seminar were engineering services and manufactured steel and metal products company SMED Engineering, with offices in Mostar and Sarajevo, and Eagle Technology, with a daughter company in Zepce, which focuses on the construction and design of machines to the oil and gas industry, steel constructions and products and other products.

NBBA President Jan Morritz Olsson said that he was very optimistic as the NBBA’s first steps were very successful, particularly when it comes to cooperation in the fields of green energy and metal industry and, lately, in wood industry.

„Today we are focused on the development of companies in areas where Norwegian companies together with BiH can together approach the global market, “ Mr Olsson said.

Many of the companies contributing to the increase in trade between the two countries belong to BiH citizens who live in Norway and several of them were very satisfied with the opportunities they had for business meeting at the seminar.

„I’ve had contact with 3-4 companies to whom we can open the market through cooperation with Norwegian partners. Due to the situation in Ukraine, some companies which have operations there, in the the Baltic and in Poland are looking for alternative options and that is an opportunity for us ,“ said Mujo Hamzić, whose electrical installations company Borge Installasjon has 50 employees in Norway and six in BiH.