In addition to business representatives, the Forum has brought together professionals from the Compliance & Ethics field from the region, as well as representatives of international development finance institutions, such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The one-day conference discussed the importance of implementing international business standards in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the countries of the region, analysing why they international companies avoid cooperation with domestic companies due to the lack of legal coherence, and presented how corporate compliance with internationally accepted rules gives domestic companies a competitive advantage in business.
The promotion of BCEF (Balkan Compliance & Ethics Forum) in domestic media, as well as the importance of establishing a compliance program in the business community, was supported by the agency McCann Sarajevo. Vesna Vlašić Jusupović, Managing Director at McCann Sarajevo, said: “We work transparently, we respect the code of ethics, and we believe that the implementation of compliance programs contributes to the quality of our final product. Standardization of rules and procedures within individual industries means business advancement in general and therefore I think it is necessary to implement compliance.”
Vlašić Jusupović also added: “We exchanged knowledge and experience with the other companies at the Forum, learned more about new international business criteria and presented rules and procedures we apply within the McCann agency, whose implementation brings good business results.”
“This forum is primarily visited by companies that have standards of business integrity in their business practices, meaning they have mechanisms and dedication to avoid illegal business practices such as corruption, fraud, contravention of competition rules, coercion and obstructions. Business quality standard is based on this, and for years now we have been working with companies that operate this way,” explained Bojan Bajić, president of WEFEC.
One of the key recommendations of this year’s BCEF is that all companies operating under the standards of business integrity enter a certain organization in order to make a clear differentiation in the market.
