7 Things We Learned from Webinar about Coronavirus Economy in B&H

We had the best Monday evening you can imagine – we organized online panel discussion with our experts in the field of macro and microeconomics Admir Čavalić, Faruk Hadžić and Damir Bećirović who explained how COVID – 19 can be a chance for Bosnia and Herzegovina to grow. It’s very important to understand all the factors that will affect our economy in the next period and to emphasize the ones we can use to help our economy and businesses. We wrapped up 7 most important things we learned yesterday from our experts:

The crisis is (not) a time for completely new measures 

Yes, the crisis is dangerous, everything looks very uncertain but some principles stay the same, no matter the circumstances. Start a business in a field where you see the potential demand you can satisfy, use your contacts wisely, and invest only until the affordable loss limit, not over it. Sounds simple, right? 

Be as independent as possible 

Everyone knows that governmental support in Bosnia and Herzegovina is something that you cannot rely on. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the government was late with measures and many businesses suffered severe circumstances because of it. Lesson? Be liquid as much as you can, create cash reserves, and everything you can to decrease dependency on government. 

We are not aware of the power of digitalization for our country 

With only one single laptop and stable internet access, you could replace a few employees from the bureaucracy and use saved money as an investment to education and innovation. Systematic approach as this one would manifest in a significant development in a few years. 

Remote work is our potential future? 

The pandemic forced almost everyone towards remote work, and guess what - it worked. The business world suddenly realized how working remotely functions pretty well, it can even be more productive sometimes than typical work at the office. It is also cheaper since you avoid expenses of rent and other utilities. We exclusively learned how some companies in B&H plan to have a certain number of employees on a constant remote work from now on. 

This is not a time for a massive focus on agriculture! 

Yes, producing your food as a country has many advantages, but analyses showed that during the pandemic, being able to import food from various sources is more important than having a solid food production. 

Do not put all your eggs in one basket. 

Heavy focus on one industry as a country has more cons than pros. You can build a reputation of an expert in it, but if the industry suffers any damage on the global level, you have no more cards in your sleeve and you end up being severely damaged as well. We can find an example of this in our neighborhood because Croatia relies heavily on tourism and due to the pandemic, that sector will suffer some damage for sure. 

Go global. 

The best example of this in our country are IT companies. Almost all of them work exclusively for international clients which makes finding new clients and projects significantly easier for them. This way they do not depend much on the economic situation in our country since they play on the global market and their only care is to find good employees and to organize their business in compliance with the law of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Unfortunately, there is no enough space to write everything we’ve learned about the B&H economy in the time of coronavirus. We tried to select the most important ones and we hope you will find it useful too. Also, we are proud that our Foundations’ network gathers such great experts who can educate our members about the topics which will affect their career in the future. 

Thank you Admir, Damir, and Faruk. We enjoyed your panel discussion. In case you missed it, you can watch it here