President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic on Friday called on Croatian business people to invest in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to help facilitate efforts aimed at helping Bosnian Croats stay there.

“We want to stimulate Croatian businesspeople to turn to investing in Bosnia and Herzegovina, so that we can provide jobs for young people and have them stay there,” Grabar-Kitarovic was quoted by the Bosnia and Herzegovina edition of the Zagreb-based Vecernji List daily.

She added that Croatia will continue to help ethnic Croats and Bosnia and Herzegovina on its Euro-Atlantic path, and respect the equality of all peoples.

“It is the sincere wish of Croatia and its institutions to provide help in building Bosnia and Herzegovina into a modern European country for all of its citizens. Croats have always respected the principle of equality of all three peoples who live there. I believe that anyone who is a friend of this country has to value that fact,” Grabar-Kitarovic told Vecernji List.

She is the co-sponsor of the Days of Croatian Film festival in the northern Bosnian town of Orasje, along with the Croat member of the Bosnia and Herzegovina tripartite Presidency, Dragan Covic. The festival, to be held on September 1-8, will screen recent Croatian films to local audiences.

She said that support for the festival was a substantial part of preserving historical and cultural identity which is essential for the survival of ethnic Croats in that country, particularly in its northern Posavina region.

“Ever since this festival was launched, more than two decades ago, it offered hope for a better tomorrow in which it will be possible to live and create, and in which generations of young people will emerge, being turned towards the future that is in their hands,” Grabar-Kitarovic said.