REGIONAL DETERMINANTS OF EXPORT COMPETITIVENESS IN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY IN CANTON SARAJEVO, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Abstract

Located in Southeast Europe, Bosnia and Herzegovina suffered from the negative trade balance. There is an increase of export performance; however, the import value is much higher exceeding the export value. To solve that issue, this research aims to investigate regional determinants and its impact on export competitiveness of manufacturing industry in Canton Sarajevo, the center of economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Regional determinants assessed are foreign ownership, urbanization, and localization. Regression analysis using SPSS software was conducted. Type of manufacturing industry, urbanization, and localization were the independent variables, meanwhile export competitiveness was the dependent variable. Type of manufacturing industry shows positive impact on export competitiveness. There are 94 out of 490 exporting companies in Canton Sarajevo that belong to manufacturing industry. Out of 94 companies, the most represented companies are fabricated metal products. The manufacturing industry plays a significant role to the export competitiveness in Canton Sarajevo. The biggest urbanization ratio percentage was 23.08% in 2018. The biggest localization ratio percentage was 9.33% in 2016, meaning that localization dropped in years. According to the export incomes data, results show that a small municipality, such as Ilijaš, gains the biggest export incomes. The regression analysis shows positive linear correlation between variables.