Bosnia-Herzegovina Country Profile

Snapshot of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Country Profile


Since the end of the 1992-1995 war, Bosnia-Herzegovina has demonstrated progress in stabilising the country and economy. However, due to a wide range of problems, many of which are legacies from the war, the country still struggles with trying to win the confidence of its citizens, the international community and investors, and levels of foreign investment remain low.

Positive developments in relation to corruption and investment:

  • Bosnia-Herzegovina has made significant efforts to attract foreign investors by passing a liberal foreign investment law and uniform trade, corporate tax and customs policies.
  • Work is underway to produce a uniform registration system for the whole country as well as to establish other single regulatory institutions and frameworks at the state level to replace entity level equivalences, which have prevented cross-entity business development and foreign investment.
  • The computerisation of files at the Land Registry in Sarajevo took place in 2008 and has substantially sped up and made more transparent the process of registering property in that area.

Risks of corruption:

  • Corruption is pervasive within the country's institutions, particularly within the judiciary, the police and other law enforcement agencies, business licensing, public utilities, taxation, customs and procurement.
  • Observers agree that the insufficiently defined power-sharing agreements in Bosnia-Herzegovina produce complex legal and regulatory frameworks, partly due to the fact that laws and regulations at state and entity levels are often duplicative and contradictory and result in unclear responsibilities. These foster inconsistent procedures that encourage corruption.
  • Forming a general view of all laws and rules that apply to a certain activity can be extremely difficult and foreign investors are therefore advised to obtain local assistance and advice and reminded to conduct due diligence when working with facilitating local agents.


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