July
1999
Bosnia
Master Report
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Bosnia Master Report |
1. Regulatory background
The majority of the regulations and legal acts in the two administrative entities of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (FBiH) and Republic of Srpska (RS) have been inherited from the former Yugoslavia. There are federal ministries, but overall authority lies with the ministries at the state level in both entities. The task of building a new regulatory system in Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the most important tasks for the governments of the entities, and for the federal administration.
2. Business constraints and entry barriers
Bosnia and Herzegovina is tightly connected to the neighboring countries through communications and industry, and via them to the rest of the world. RS is under very strong influence of FR of Yugoslavia, and their business community. Similarly, there is a great influence from Croatia and its business community in parts of FBiH with Croat population.
Besides the very high level of activity in the field of liberalisation and privatisation there are still certain business constraints. Many of the bigger companies are still owned by the State. Nevertheless, there is a substantial number of small and medium privately owned enterprises.
3. Attitude of the incumbent operator towards alternative network providers
Very little can be said about this issue. All existing operators are still owned by the State and are monopolistic. The current laws does not allow any other company or organisation to act as an alternative network provider.
4. On-going regulatory developments concerning alternative networks
The privatisation programme is intended to play an integral part in the economic recovery of the country. In that context, the main objective of the programme is to change the structure of ownership so that every enterprise has real owners with clearly defined ownership rights. Other objectives of the programme include: contributing to the maintenance of social stability; dealing with outstanding claims, especially frozen foreign currency deposits; assisting in the development of funding for the public pension system; securing resources for the restitution of property; and developing healthy and liquid capital markets.
The privatisation programme will be established by new legislation. All existing publicly owned enterprises are to be included in the programme, with three exceptions:
The legislation and regulations governing privatisation and post-privatisation trading are interdependent and will be designed as an integrated package. The following laws will be required:
a. Stock Exchanges
b. The Central Registry
c. The Securities Commission
d. Investment Funds
5. List of potential utilities
The following structures have been identified as offering a potential for Alternative Networks in the future:
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