Turkey top five investor in Bosnia

SARAJEVO - Anatolia News Agency

Turkish firms like Şişecam Soda and Türk-oil have been investing in Bosnia.

Turkish firms have recently been increasing their investments in Bosnia, placing Turkey among the top five countries investing in Bosnia, according to the Bosnia Herzegovina Statistics Agency’s 2011 figures.

Last year, foreign investors invested a total of 313 million euros in Bosnia, 1 billion euros in Croatia and 1.5 billion euros in Serbia, according to the data.

The total investment both from abroad and domestically in Bosnia only went up by a minimal 0.1 percent in 2011, to 2.3 billion euros. As in 2010, the majority of investments in 2011 went to the manufacturing sector. The production industry received 17 percent of total investments, followed by the wholesale and retail sectors at 16 percent. When looked at as a whole, the 2011 investment figures show that investors are still wary about investing in Bosnia Herzegovina and that they still do not view it as a safe investment harbor, according to officials.

Bosnia Herzegovina Central Bank figures indicate that from May 1994 to December 2010, the total amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country was 4.9 billion euros. Until 2010, Austria took the lead in terms of FDI, but this changed in the past two years, after Turkey began to increase its investments into the country.

Last year, Turkish company Viyenats Kireçtaşı invested 3 million euros in the country’s mines, while Şişecam Soda invested more than 4 million euros. In addition, Türk-oil also invested close to 3 million euros in Bosnia. Officials say that Turkey’s investments in Bosnia will increase every year.

According to the Bosnia Herzegovina Statistics Agency, the countries that invested the most in Bosnia last year were: Serbia, Luxembourg, Holland, Saudi Arabia and Turkey in fifth place.