Often times Srebrenica is solely associated with its painful past without any insight into some of the positive things happening in this eastern Bosnian community. Politics tend to dominate the narrative without a closer look at the success the stories. Well, this is one of them. Bojan Rankic is a BiH diaspora member from Serbia who founded Ekonomik Grupa, a Srebrenica-based industrial container manufacturing firm, in January 2018. Mr. Rankic acquired relevant experience during the 12 years he worked for a similar company in Serbia. During that time, he built up broad experience in the technical, manufacturing, and marketing aspects of container production and developed an extensive network of business contacts with suppliers and buyers in the Southeast European region. The sustained high demand for containers in Southeast European countries motivated Mr. Rankić to launch production in Srebrenica where he now employs 60 people from all different backgrounds. For this reason the USAID Project ‘Diaspora Invest’ who, through the grant program and technical support activities, encouraged the strength and expansion of this company. ‘We construct containers for international and domestic market and despite the challenges of the pandemic we are getting new orders. In this business it is of the utmost importance to respect deadlines. Aside from the works entailed in mass production and container construction for different purposes we also construct special purpose prefabricated containers like info-stands and ‘pop-up stores’. We would like to bring something new in the urban areas of this region and offer alternatives to permanent constructions where you don’t want to crowd the space’, explains Rankić.
Whereas Srebrenica is often connected to its negative past, this project in particular highlights the willingness and necessity of the community to come together to work towards a common and sustainable future. ‘We are working with the whole region. Our company employs people of different national and religious backgrounds, and we are proud of the fact that there are no divisions and differences in our company. There is no greater fortune than an opportunity to invest money in the region of your origins and I believe that our story will encourage others to invest in Srebrenica too. Srebrenica wants to work and develop and we can achieve than only if we work together’, concluded Rankić. Employees from different ethnic backgrounds are not only colleagues but friends and see the success of Ekonomik Grupa as a model to not only keep people in this struggling eastern Bosnia town but to start to bring people back.
Contact: [email protected]; 065 290 6292
