Money from the seed-corn fund can be put into loans or equity capital in start-up companies. The Norwegian Foreign Ministry has given the fund NOK 2 million in start capital.

The Foreign Ministry and NORAD, the Norwegian development aid agency, are financing the establishment and operation of the Bosnia centre. SINTEF Technology and Society is supplying the project manager, and is partnered by Norwegian SIVA, the University of Tuzla and Tuzla City Council.

Central location
Tuzla lies between the capital cities of Sarajevo, Belgrade and Zagreb, in a region with a population of around 20 million inhabitants, as many as the whole of Scandinavia.

Project manager Torkel Ystgaard of SINTEF Technology and Society hopes that international companies will also find it interesting to open offices in Tuzla under the same roof as the local start-ups.

The centre in Tuzla was opened on October 18 by Henrik Ofstad, Norway’s ambassador in Sarajevo.

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By Svein Tønseth