He also mentioned the business-education hub as one of the projects within the Academy of Economic Sustainability, a project launched by the Chamber of Economy of the Federation of BiH last year.
– We believe that the era of market economy is over, that today it is the economy of economic sustainability, so topics such as digitalization, green transition, CBAM, ESG, artificial intelligence, and so on are here. We are already filling this platform with content, and it will initially be available “pro bono”, and later to our members at lower prices, while those who want it commercially will have access at a price to be determined – Šantić said.
He pointed out that the Chamber is in daily cooperation with the Republic of Croatia and Montenegro, and that it has
been able to obtain all projects it could legally obtain under their rules, but also that they expect another project that has been completed in cooperation with the City of Mostar, namely the project “COOPeR 2”.
– Through the “COOPeR” project, we brought the Olive Growing Center here to Mostar some years ago, and I hope that the “COOPeR 2” project, for which we applied, will also go ahead. We have some technical things there regarding the laboratory, education, promotion in olive growing. Next year we continue all these mentioned activities that we have been doing so far – Šantić said.
The Deputy Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Federal Minister of Development, Entrepreneurship and Crafts Vojin Mijatović pointed out that the Chamber of Economy of the Federation of BiH has an insufficiently recognized position in the domestic economic system.
– It is the only chamber that does not have mandatory membership and that is something that undoubtedly makes the Chamber’s work more difficult. Keep in mind that the Chamber represents the first contact of the economy with institutions and is much more important than all of us in the state system, but we are slowly correcting that year by year. When at one point we talked about the possible introduction of mandatory membership fees for the Chamber, the first thing Mr. Šantić and the other people said was that there are enough fiscal and parafiscal burdens, give us help with taking over public areas so that we could eventually get sources of financing – Mijatović said.
He stated that from 2004 to 2022, the Chamber of Economy received a total of 32,000 marks from the Federation of BiH budget, and that with the arrival of this government until today that amount has been 400,000 marks.
– Let us be clear, that is still too little, and it is insufficient to be real support from the standpoint of establishing a system that we should all ultimately be a service to our economy, but here, next year I can announce that we will increase that support to the Chamber of Economy because all those projects have an effect and ultimately the Chamber of Economy of the Federation of BiH, which is closer to businessmen, can do all this much better than any line ministry or government – Mijatović said.
He pointed out that the budget for support to the economy in the current year is 28 million marks.
– When it comes to our work over these 31 months, I will note that in this ministry we inherited a budget of seven million for support to small business, and in the current year that budget is 28 million. That is not even close to enough, not even close to what is needed to reward, co-finance and support projects in our economy, but do not forget, 31 months ago that was at the level of a statistical error and businessmen were rightly dissatisfied. I would like to emphasize one more figure: for eight years of the previous government, 38 million marks were allocated to the economy, while in 31 months of this government 62 million were allocated, and that figure shows that things have changed. Overall, along with the regulation concerning aid for retaining jobs plus grants that went out this year, 100 million marks were allocated to small business in the Federation of BiH in 2025, which is a record year – Mijatović said.
He expressed satisfaction with the fact that the Chamber of Economy of the Federation of BiH is gaining a much better position, and that this ministry is one of those helping on that path.
– If we look at the environment, the roles of chambers are much greater and more important than the roles of institutions that cover the economy. My goal is that by the end of this mandate we get a much, much stronger Chamber of Economy that will over time take over, even public powers from ministries that should deal exclusively with policies when it comes to the sector of small, micro-small and medium-sized enterprises. The Chamber of Economy should be the first point of contact with businessmen, but also an institution that certainly, due to the fact that it is formed and that businessmen are in it, represents the most important player, conditionally speaking, in the market of development and establishment of better conditions for the business of our companies – Mijatović said.
When the full implementation of the Fiscalization Law begins, Mijatović pointed out that there will certainly be room to talk about increasing the minimum wage and many other things that, as he says, will mean a better standard of living for citizens, but also much better conditions for our businessmen.
