Bosnia and Herzegovina will not be represented at the EXPO 2020 in Dubai and the country’s Council of Ministers is to blame for that, the head of the BiH Foreign Trade Chamber, Ahmet Egrlic, told N1.

“Everything is prepared, Dubai EXPO has provided us with a pavilion and accommodation that is free,” Egrlic said, explaining that the Council of Ministers decided three years ago that BiH will be represented at the event and that an agreement was signed with the ambassador to the Emirates on behalf of BiH.

“All formalities were completed, we came to a situation when a decision had to be made on the amount BiH will invest into it, they could not agree on it,” he said.

He explained that later the organisers in Dubai even said that they could provide that part of the funds, but still, the decisions or BiH to participate were lacking.

Egrlic said that BiH’s Foreign Trade Minister, Stasa Kosarac, was interested in the idea of BiH participating and was advocating for it, but that the Council of Ministers did not support it.

He also noted that EXPO Dubai will most likely sue BiH because, based on the necessary decisions and contracts, it provided part of the funds and paid a million and a half dollars in expenses in order to have BiH at the event.

He also argued that BiH “lost the opportunity to present itself at the most important event of its kind.”

“This happens every five years and BiH needed to present all its resources and potentials for investments, to build its image, to meet state officials from other countries and businesspersons and large multinational companies that want to talk to BiH,” he said.