SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), November 13 (SeeNews) – Bosnia needs to make a firm commitment to a new reform agenda once the new governments are in place following the October 2018 elections, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Tuesday.
The reform should include a concrete, measureable set of deliverables on improving the investment climate and standards of governance, and advancing the country’s EU approximation agenda, the EBRD said in its 2018-2019 Transition Report.
In February 2018 the government of Bosnia's Federation entity approved the privatisation plan for 2018, under which the government equity in four major companies should be sold: engineering company Energoinvest, fuel retailer Energopetrol, aluminium smelter Aluminij and insurer Sarajevo Osiguranje.
However, resistance to the privatisation process within the Federation remains strong and prospects for successful sales are limited. There has also been no progress in the past year in privatising telecommunications companies BH Telekom and HT Mostar, and the related due diligence – a prior action for the IMF programme – has not taken place yet, the EBRD said.
"Progress in this area would not only improve the financial viability of the companies but also demonstrate a genuine commitment to attracting investment in key sectors."
Further efforts are needed to resolve non-performing loans (NPLs) as banks still face difficulties in writing off problematic loans or selling them to non-bank entities, the EBRD noted.
The EBRD predicts Bosnia's economy will grow by 3.0% in 2018, the same rate of increase as in 2017.
Bosniak and Bosnian Serb nationalist parties won both the vote for state-level parliament and the elections for the tripartite interethnic presidency held in Bosnia's two entities - the Federation and the Serb Republic, according to final official data.