The Chinese manage the quarry in Berkovići, in BiH they invested only about nine million KM in five years

For years, Chinese investments have been announced in BiH, which remained "a dead letter on paper", but they are regularly "recycled". This and other official data dismantles attempts to create the impression that China is investing billions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is clear that there is a difference between Chinese loans shrouded in secrecy and real investments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which, when they do occur, are paid for by taking ownership of our natural resources, such as quarries.

The Kremnica quarry in the municipality of Berkovići, in the RS entity, has been managed by Chinese owners for years and almost all of the stone is exported to China. Although the "Kremnice" company received from the Government of the Republic of Srpska a concession for the exploitation of architectural and building stone in the area of the municipality of Berkovići in 2012 as a company owned by Bosnia and Herzegovina. citizens, already in 2014 the Chinese partner Han Chenglian and the Hongkong Panjing Mining Shares Limited entered the ownership structure of the company as the majority owner. Then the concession for the exploitation field of chert stone, with an area of 14.8 hectares, passes into the hands of the Chinese.
Since then, the entire production of stone blocks has been exported to the Chinese market. In this way, they will be able to work for the next 30 years, as long as the right to the concession is valid. We are talking about the export of about 5,400 m3 blocks per year or 600 containers.

These are the data published by the "Kremnica" Company on its official website. However, there is no data on what benefits the RS entity or the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina derive from stone mining.
We have sent an inquiry about this to the authorities in Berkovići Municipality, but there is no answer.
In this context, it is also indicative that, according to the data of the BiH Indirect Taxation Administration that Fokus received, the amount of stone exported from our country has been around three million KM in monetary value for years, while imports range up to 26 million KM worth of stone.
Although a certain number of local workers work in the mine in Berkovići, it is clear that the Chinese invested money in the mining of this valuable stone for their own benefit. By the way, more than half of the value of the total export of architectural stone, i.e. marble and granite, from Bosnia and Herzegovina has gone to China in the last five years.

And while the Chinese benefit the most from the exploitation of high-quality Herzegovinian stone in this case, such investments are counted as investments in BiH, regardless of the fact that it is actually the exploitation of our natural resources.

Also, these alleged investments unmask the real intentions of both China and the promoters of their supposedly good intentions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although information appears periodically in our country about "Chinese billions" that ended up in BiH, many misinterpret them as investments or direct investments. The information we received from the Agency for the Promotion of Foreign Investments in response to our inquiry indicates that in the last five years, China has invested a total of 9.4 million KM in Bosnia and Herzegovina!

It is clear that this data dismantles attempts to create the illusion that billions of Chinese capital are being invested in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Of course, there is a distinction between mysterious Chinese loans that finance certain projects in BiH, especially in the Republika Srpska entity, and investments in the real sector that bring some benefit to BiH and its citizens.
Although FIPA says that regardless of the "modest amounts of registered capital from the People's Republic of China", it should be noted that through contracts on the construction and financing of energy and infrastructure projects through the cooperation of partners from the Republic of China with public or private companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, larger investments are realized , it must be emphasized that in these cases it is not about investments but about pure lending under conditions that Chinese financiers hide "like a snake's legs".
Also, FIPA cites the construction of the "Ivovik" Wind Park near Livno, worth around 130 million euros, as a significant Chinese investment. It is known that the Chinese got the concession for this project in a dubious way, and mainly the Chinese owners will benefit from the sale of electricity from that wind farm, so in this case we cannot talk about investing in BiH, but in private businesses.

SECRET PROJECTS OF STATE SIGNIFICANCE FROM WHICH THE CHINESE PROFIT AGAIN
The answer to Fokus from the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the question of how much our country is indebted to Chinese banks also says that Chinese loans and contracts about them are secret and that there is no official data about them.

- In the records of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of Bosnia and Herzegovina, there are no credit debts with banks or other institutions of the People's Republic of China - they responded to Fokus' inquiry from this state ministry.

On the other hand, there were earlier attempts to find out the details of the Chinese loan agreement with which certain infrastructure projects are financed in both the FBiH and the RS. However, they have remained secret until today, so one can only guess the amount of interest on those loans, as well as the conditions under which they were obtained, which are assumed to be in any case in favor of Chinese creditors.

SUSPICIOUS RESIDENCE PERMITS
At the same time, Chinese citizens are issued temporary residence permits on the basis of "significant projects" who work in our country without a work permit.

As Fokus was told by the Service for Affairs with Foreigners, most such permits have been issued lately, but they did not answer our question about which "projects of importance" we were talking about. It remained unclear which authorities of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, referred to by the Service for Affairs with Foreigners, declared projects of special interest on the basis of which Chinese citizens can obtain work permits in Bosnia and Herzegovina without a previously approved residence permit.

- In connection with your inquiry, we hereby inform you that there are currently 489 Chinese citizens who have been granted/extended temporary residence in Bosnia and Herzegovina, most of which were issued on the basis of work without a work permit - project of importance 295, work with a work permit 148, family reunification 38 and education eight. 308 citizens of the Republic of China have been granted permanent residence in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Foreigners who work on projects, which have been declared of special interest by state authorities, can work without a work permit based on a previously approved residence permit. The Service for Affairs with Foreigners is responsible for the approval of residence on the basis of an important project - the Service for Affairs with Foreigners stated for Focus.

All these data support the secrecy of Chinese projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina, many of which are a kind of "Potemkin villages", because of the many long-term investment announcements, only a few have been realized, but it is evident that someone's interest is to create the appearance of Chinese capital investing in our country. Earth.

However, the facts from the field speak only about the influence and privileges of the Chinese in obtaining concessions on natural resources in BiH under dubious circumstances, and the realization of the benefits of Chinese investors through projects in which they may have invested money, but it returned to them many times over.

It is also interesting in what way they are trying to give credibility and legitimacy to alleged Chinese investments in Bosnia and Herzegovina through the institutions of the Republika Srpska entity.

Namely, for years, representatives of the Government of the RS have been meeting with various alleged investors from China and announcing the construction of factories in the RS that would be financed by Chinese businessmen. But until now, all those announcements have remained a dead letter.
FAILED PROJECTS HAVE BEEN RECYCLED FOR YEARS
Among the most frequently mentioned names linked to alleged Chinese investments is that of Dragan Čorokal, director of the "Fortis Group", which consists of several companies, including "Prijedorputevi".
Čorokalo is apparently in charge of "guiding" Chinese investors around the RS and for marketing information about their investments, which so far only resemble "Potemkin's villages" and none of these projects have come to life.
Thus, in 2016, Čorokalo announced a joint investment with the Chinese in a cement plant in Novi Grad, in which the Chinese would have majority ownership.
Although at one time Čorokalo said that the days to finalize this agreement were in question, today, eight years later, there is nothing from that project, which was said to be worth 120 million euros and would employ around 500 workers.
Čorokalo announced that he would ask the RS to declare this work with the Chinese as a project of general interest, and the question arises whether it is precisely on the basis of the declaration of such non-existent projects that hundreds of Chinese citizens exercise the right to so-called work in BiH without having previously achieved of residence.
He announced the construction of the Čorokalo cement plant with the Chinese company "CAMCE", and a few years later the director of the "Fortis Group" announced the construction of a paint and varnish factory, also in Novi Grad, also with the Chinese company Golden fish color company from Beijing.
That factory was never built either.
In the meantime, Čorokalo again turned to the fruitless announcements of the construction of a cement plant in Novi Grad, this time with the company Power of China, and two years ago, this project was discussed with the Prime Minister of the RS, Radovan Višković, who gave his support to the project.

To this day, there is nothing from this factory either. Neither the announced construction of the pipe factory in Foča nor the cement factory in Ugljevik, which was also agreed for years at the level of government institutions in the RS, was realized.
However, the fact that it paid off for Čorokal to "lead" the Chinese and empty stories about their alleged investments is also shown by the fact that he announced investments from China, while in fact his company constantly received tenders for road maintenance in the RS worth tens of millions of marks from the entity budget. , and about which Žurnal wrote on several occasions.
The operations of Chinese companies registered in FBiH also have an invisible mark of secrecy.
When the representative office of Dragon Maritime SEE d.o.o. was opened in Sarajevo in 2018, as a representative of the Chinese shipping company Cosco Shipping, it was then that the improvement of services was announced, primarily for importers and exporters in terms of faster and better transport of goods.
However, in the official registers of business companies, the activity of this company is listed as "market and public opinion research".
Except for the information that the representative of the company is Meliha Mujezinović, and the address of the company's headquarters in Sarajevo, there is no other information about her.

To this day, there is nothing from this factory either. Neither the announced construction of the pipe factory in Foča nor the cement factory in Ugljevik, which was also agreed for years at the level of government institutions in the RS, was realized.

However, the fact that it paid off for Čorokal to "lead" the Chinese and empty stories about their alleged investments is also shown by the fact that he announced investments from China, while in fact his company constantly received tenders for road maintenance in the RS worth tens of millions of marks from the entity budget. , and about which Žurnal wrote on several occasions.

The operations of Chinese companies registered in FBiH also have an invisible mark of secrecy.
When the representative office of Dragon Maritime SEE d.o.o. was opened in Sarajevo in 2018, as a representative of the Chinese shipping company Cosco Shipping, it was then that the improvement of services was announced, primarily for importers and exporters in terms of faster and better transport of goods.
However, in the official registers of business companies, the activity of this company is listed as "market and public opinion research".

Except for the information that the representative of the company is Meliha Mujezinović, and the address of the company's headquarters in Sarajevo, there is no other information about her.

THE FOREIGN TRADE CHAMBER OF B&H DOES NOT HAVE INFORMATION ABOUT THE CHINESE REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE IN SARAJEVO
It is interesting that even the Foreign Trade Chamber (VTK) of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the institution that is the main link of cooperation between domestic and foreign businessmen, has no information about this Chinese company.
- Colleagues from different sectors checked the company Dragon Maritime SEE d.o.o. in our databases. - representative office in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and unfortunately, we cannot help you much. The company Dragon Maritime SEE d.o.o. - the representative office in Bosnia and Herzegovina participated in the workshop "Responsibility of carriers in multimodal transport", in December 2022, organized by VTKBiH. We do not have any other information about this company - they stated for Fokus from VTKBiH.
Given that the FBiH Railways were recently mentioned as a partner of Dragon Maritime SEE d.o.o. at the opening of the new Land Sea Express Tuzla intermodal service, which includes regular maritime transport of goods to the port of Rijeka in the Republic of Croatia, and an intermodal connection via rail transport to the final destination in Tuzla, we asked the FBiH Railways for an answer about the scope of this project and their cooperation with a Chinese company.
This railway line was announced as "a response to the great interest of the market and a supplement to the existing services of Cosco Shipping on the BiH market".

To a specific question about whether the FBiH Railways cooperate with the Chinese company Cosco Shipping, i.e. the company Dragon Maritime SEE d.o.o., and to tell us more about the implementation of the project to establish railway traffic for the needs of the Chinese company, the FBiH Railways answered:

- With the opening of the container terminal in Tuzla, the FBiH Railways, in accordance with its capabilities and in cooperation with the participating partner railways, submitted an offer of conditions and prices for the transportation of complete container trains from the Port of Rijeka to this terminal to all interested users. Due to the expressed interest, this offer was extended to rail transport between the container terminals Tuzla and Surčin.
Through the contractual cooperation with the company COSKO SHIPPING LINES, that is, its agent for maritime and intermodal transport DRAGON Maritime SEE, we started the implementation of the transport of container trains on this route at the end of last year and at the beginning of this year, and in that period we achieved a total volume of transport of 152 containers. The continuation and further development of this project is entirely dependent on the decision and choice of the user - they stated from FBiH Railways for Focus, and from this answer it is not clear how much the domestic and Chinese businessmen benefited from this line.
What is clear only from these few examples is that under the guise of alleged investors, especially in the RS, Chinese negotiators often come and for years make empty promises that are wholeheartedly supported mainly by the representatives of the authorities in the RS, although it is clear that these promises became "colorful lies" a long time ago.