The author, Ph.D. of Economic Policy at the Parma University, was
involved during the years 1998/2000 with the implementation of an ILO’s
international project aiming at the creation of EDA’s (Enterprises
Development Agencies) to help the new small private activities
immediately after the stop of the Yougoslav conflict. The understanding
of the macroeconomic framework, combining the features of a transition
economy with the complications of the war damages, was an important
parallel activity to enrich the first lines of the project but even to
test the effectiveness of the Western economic support. The objectives
of the research were concerning three main points:if the Bosnia Herzegovina was able to transform itself into a free market system without the external foreign aid;if a medium term development after recovery can be a realistic forecast;if not, what direction shoud take the Western assistanceAfter
an analysis of the economic indicators, as population, investments,
trade balance, inflation , the definition of the old economic system
under the communist rule in the former Yougoslavia and the last
evolution of some specific conditions, as the political class and the
public bureaucracy, the socio-economic representativeness, the
unreliable banking system, the privatization process, the consistency
and the weakness of the new SMEs, the first conclusion is the BH system
is not able of an autonomous self sustaining development because of the
insufficient domestic accumulation of capital.
The flow of
international aid, the only one source of investment even during 2000,
can maximize its effects only if directly channelled as low cost credit
to the existing private productive SMEs and to the creation of new
ones.Other recommendations were : the creation of some business
incubators, the promotion of interfirms connections with companies of
the western industrialized countries, a long term investment in the
economic communication, the elaboration of orginal content in the
entrepreneurial training. The University Dzemal Bijedic in Mostar, as
the Sarajevo and Tuzla Universities were the natural hosts of the
public debate.