S&T Country Report - Albania - WBC-INCO Net

1 Introduction
This thematic report is produced by the “Information Office of the Steering Platform
on Research for Western Balkan Countries” and reviews the situation of Innovation
Infrastructures in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The report is based upon desk research, interviews and questionnaires with main
stakeholders.
The objective of this study is to enhance our understanding of the national innovation
system in Bosnia and Herzegovina. An overview of the situation as regards
“Innovation Infrastructures” such as clusters, technology and innovation centres,
technological and science parks, business-start-up centres/ technology incubators
and some further related organizations is given. The general environment is
described as well as important strategic documents and the main programmes and
instruments for support. The report concludes with a list and description of the main
infrastructures.
The report was compiled in summer 2007.
1.1 General Environment for Setting Up Innovation Infrastructures
This first section deals with rules and regulations, describes the national framework
and the specific funds available.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) enterprise policy is largely established at entity
level. The country lacks a SME strategy, as well as policy design and implementation
capability at state level. There are growing disparities in approach and level of
development among the two entities and the District of Brčko. Some critical elements
for establishing a level playing field across the country are still not in place (e.g.
harmonisation of corporate tax, a national company register). There is a need to
establish a system allowing regular information exchange, and to create synergies
among locally managed programmes at state level.
BiH has already approved a major reform of the overall company registration system.
It is moving towards harmonisation of company registration procedures, which are
currently set at entity level. Development of a single company register has been
delayed due to technical problems.
BiH appears to lag behind significantly in the entire business establishment process,
due in particular to problems of agreement and co-ordination between different levels
of government. An important development is the USAID Project SPIRA –
Streamlining Permits and Inspection Regimes Activity (for the period 2005-09), which
is designed to improve SMEs’ access to the market place by reducing administrative
barriers to start-up and operation. SPIRA targets the pre- and post- registration
page 4/BIH