Principal Deputy High Representative Takes Aim at BiH Statistical System

29/09/2005

Development of the business climate in Bosnia and Herzegovina is being hampered by the lack of an effective system for handling statistical data, the international community's deputy high representative for the country, Lawrence Butler, told a group of students Wednesday.

By Virginia Miller for Southeast European Times in Sarajevo – 29/09/05

"This country is not that far from getting into the pipeline for the EU, and it needs a compatible system for statistical national accounts,” said Principal Deputy High Representative to BiH Lawrence Butler. [File]

Ambassador Lawrence Butler, the principal deputy high representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), warned of dangers to the BiH economy stemming from the lack of a unified and reliable system of statistical data during a roundtable discussion with students at the Sarajevo Graduate School of Business on Wednesday (28 September).

Responding to student questions, Butler said the biggest impediment to the system of economic data is the lack of co-operation from the RS Statistical Agency. BiH cannot afford to continue without an effective statistical programme, he said. Options under discussion include either a change in the leadership of the RS statistical agency or in the structure of the statistical agencies in the country, such as folding the three existing agencies into one.

The ambassador said reliable data is a major issue in improving the business climate for international and domestic investors. Private investors place a high-risk premium on possible business ventures in BiH, in part because of the lack of good economic data. Investors need to know disposable income levels for specific demographic profiles, for example. Without this information, they will not come to BiH.

Economic policymakers at the national and canton levels badly need a working statistical system, Butler said. Otherwise, they cannot correctly assess the economy's strength and weaknesses and make intelligent decisions to spur economic activity. Because the three statistical agencies do not talk to each other, economic planners can only guess at the real level of agricultural production and the real current account deficit, he said.

An effective statistical system is one of the last remaining objectives of the OHR economic pillar.

"This country is not that far from getting into the pipeline for the EU," Butler told the students, "and it needs an EU compatible system for statistical national accounts".

Butler urged the students, who are attending the first graduate business school in BiH, to "get into the brain game", looking for business opportunities in BiH that use creativity and intelligence to add value. He pointed out that Finland, another country of mostly rock and forest, had built prosperity on the basis of good design and good governance.

The Sarajevo Graduate School of Business will graduate its first class of MBAs in May 2006.