[LINK] "The Feniks Rises"
The "feniks" in the title of Martin Ehl's Transitions Online article about the rebirth of the Yugosphere as an economic space is, as it happens, Slovenian and Serbo-Croatian for "phoenix".
It helps that the Slovenians, once the undisputed business rulers of the post-Yugoslav space, have suffered a loss in prestige and confidence, and even in the willingness of banks to lend to them. So they are more open to increased cooperation and seeking common solutions to the crisis. One plan that arose two years ago at a similar conference in Bled has taken concrete form. Its name is Feniks.
Originally it was an association of construction companies, the most affected by the crisis, with the goal of penetrating third markets. Domestic economies are so mired in crisis that companies need to look around elsewhere for business - for example in countries like Libya, where Yugoslavia had an excellent reputation.
[. . .]
Feniks (or the companies themselves) can find the money for such projects through, for instance, the Islamic Development Bank, which has a branch in Sarajevo, or it could exploit the increased interest of Turkish investors in the Balkans.
"We have to find common interests. I don’t believe in love among the former Yugoslav nations, because if it exists, we wouldn’t have gone to war. I believe only in common interests,” Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said at a late-May meeting in Montenegro of more than 100 businesspeople from the countries of the former Yugoslavia. There companies from the other countries of the former Yugoslavia officially joined Feniks, originally a Slovenian-Serbian project.
[. . .]
Perhaps the crisis in Slovenia shows what a deep imprint socialist Yugoslavia has left. Slovenian politicians, for example, still have their doubts about the privatization of state enterprises. They want “strategic partners,” not new owners. Nationality certainly plays a role: government-owned Merkator - the most indebted Slovenian retail chain, with an excellent network throughout the former Yugoslavia - has rejected an offer at least five times from Agrokor, a Croatian retail giant and rival, to take over or enter into the company.
The fear of losing a national champion is big in Ljubljana, especially in light of Croatia’s accession into the European Union on 1 July. Croatia is a larger market and Zagreb is a more natural center of operations for large companies (Unicredit has already said it is moving). And if the Slovenians no longer have the status of exemplary pupils in transition economics and the best businessmen from the ex-Yugoslavia, they have a problem.
It helps that the Slovenians, once the undisputed business rulers of the post-Yugoslav space, have suffered a loss in prestige and confidence, and even in the willingness of banks to lend to them. So they are more open to increased cooperation and seeking common solutions to the crisis. One plan that arose two years ago at a similar conference in Bled has taken concrete form. Its name is Feniks.
Originally it was an association of construction companies, the most affected by the crisis, with the goal of penetrating third markets. Domestic economies are so mired in crisis that companies need to look around elsewhere for business - for example in countries like Libya, where Yugoslavia had an excellent reputation.
[. . .]
Feniks (or the companies themselves) can find the money for such projects through, for instance, the Islamic Development Bank, which has a branch in Sarajevo, or it could exploit the increased interest of Turkish investors in the Balkans.
"We have to find common interests. I don’t believe in love among the former Yugoslav nations, because if it exists, we wouldn’t have gone to war. I believe only in common interests,” Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said at a late-May meeting in Montenegro of more than 100 businesspeople from the countries of the former Yugoslavia. There companies from the other countries of the former Yugoslavia officially joined Feniks, originally a Slovenian-Serbian project.
[. . .]
Perhaps the crisis in Slovenia shows what a deep imprint socialist Yugoslavia has left. Slovenian politicians, for example, still have their doubts about the privatization of state enterprises. They want “strategic partners,” not new owners. Nationality certainly plays a role: government-owned Merkator - the most indebted Slovenian retail chain, with an excellent network throughout the former Yugoslavia - has rejected an offer at least five times from Agrokor, a Croatian retail giant and rival, to take over or enter into the company.
The fear of losing a national champion is big in Ljubljana, especially in light of Croatia’s accession into the European Union on 1 July. Croatia is a larger market and Zagreb is a more natural center of operations for large companies (Unicredit has already said it is moving). And if the Slovenians no longer have the status of exemplary pupils in transition economics and the best businessmen from the ex-Yugoslavia, they have a problem.