Creation of Business Environment in Local Self–Governments in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

The main goal of this work is to research the creation of a favorable business environment in local self–governments in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It represents one of the main drivers and reasons that enable local communities to grow and develop faster, thus becoming a desirable modern activity that the local community wants to engage in. The process of creating a favorable business environment promises a bright future for the local economy as well as for the environment. Local self–governments in Bosnia and Herzegovina have a large number of solid potentials for creating a favorable business environment that can strongly contribute to their economic development, and thus to the development of cantons, entities and the state, thereby contributing to a better living standard of citizens. In order to create an attractive environment for domestic and foreign investors, it is necessary to develop the entire concept of activities in the area of ​​the local self–government with defined goals, priorities, implementation and strategy.

Previous literature and experiences have shown that the favorable environment in the area of ​​the local community represents a new and rather unexplored area in the world, in Europe and in the region, and therefore also in Bosnia and Herzegovina. So there is a limited number of successful examples, but the number of examples at the local level is increasing year by year, and the practices of certain local self–governments can be successfully applied in other locations as well.

This research paper aims to investigate the process of creating a business environment in the local community, through a quantitative analysis of newly collected data on the degree of development of the business environment and the role of the local administration and the municipal mayor in that process. The survey was conducted at the local level – according to the statistical method, and included employees of local self–governments, business entities and citizens.

One of the main assumptions is that a developed business environment contributes to greater investment and increased employment in local self–governments. In addition, this research provides a detailed overview and theoretical analysis of the creation of a favorable business environment that includes the business sector, local administration and citizens of the local community, as well as the application of good practices from locations that have a developed business environment.

This paper also contributes to a better understanding of the role of local administration in the process of creating a business environment and the analysis of local self–government performance in the area of ​​economic development. In addition, the work contributes to the assessment of the current state of local administration, the activities of local administration in the whole process and the relationship with the business community and the issue of employment.

The research problem is reflected in the fact that modern processes are largely unknown, and although they exist, they are often imperceptible, but they still play an increasingly important role in local administrations. Changes in society with the help of advanced technologies and the constant desire for more employment of citizens have created realistic assumptions for starting the creation of a business environment, addressing municipal mayors and local administration towards strategic decisions and documents, and represent a realistic basis for greater investments and improving the living standards of the population.

The subject of this research is the impact of creating a business environment as part of economic development because it attracts and increases the interest of domestic and foreign investors in investing at the local level, which aims to create new jobs and improve the living standards of citizens of a local community.

Given that this topic is relatively new in the modern science, it is necessary to analyze the key areas in detail. The key questions investigated in this paper are to describe the state of local administration, whether the local self–government has created a business environment or is in the process of doing so, what are the benefits of this process and the application of good practices from other local administrations.