Serbia's presence in Mostar International Business Fair shows how important it is to that country but also shows the importance that Serbia gives to its relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbian prime minister Ana Brnabic said speaking at the fair's opening ceremony on Tuesday. She also touched upon the Open Balkan initiative, urging everyone to think about getting engaged in it.

She stressed that Serbia is represented by a huge delegation in the fair from various sectors and industries, and that she is accompanied by officials from the Parliament of Serbia.

“I must say that this whole delegation shows how much importance we give to this fair, but also how much importance we give to our relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as the whole region,” she said.

Representatives of thirty countries take part in Mostar Business Fair

Brnabic also emphasised the meeting she held with Croatian prime minister Andrej Plenkovic a day ago in Zagreb, saying that everyone will take the same path towards the stable Balkans.

She gave a few recent examples which, as she said, speak about Serbia's intentions.

“For instance, bilateral exchange between BiH and Serbia was doubled over the past ten years. Only in ten years we managed to increase the exchange two times. BiH is Serbia's second trade partner. Germany is first, then comes BiH. And third, we can point out that Serbia is BiH's third export partner. Only when you see these three parametres it is entirely clear how important we are to each other and how important our potential is,” said Brnabic.

She stressed that the countries should rely on each other and thanked for invitation.

“The results of this fair will be even better results for the next years. Results in 2022 were excellent. Mutual exchange increased by 33 percent, export from BiH to Serbia increased by 40 percent. Mostar fair played an important role in that,” according to her.

Serbia's PM also touched upon the issue of Open Balkans.

“I am asking everyone in BiH to think about engaging in the Open Balkan initiative. This has nothing to do with the politics except form reducing the tensions. We would benefit from a stronger involvement of Montenegro too. This initiative is about opening of borders, a full flow of people, capital and services. About different inspections that are fully harmonised, about securing that our economy and our people benefit more from our cooperation,” she underlined.