By Bogoljub J. Karić
My journey of enterprise peacemaking started in 1973. At the moment, we had a personal firm regardless of by no means being members of the Communist Social gathering. Throughout that period, missing social gathering endorsement meant practically all of the doorways had been closed, and enterprise alternatives had been completely granted to corporations whose leaders held social gathering membership. Consequently, our generations-old clergy household discovered itself destined for failure, left with no choice however to outlive and prosper.
My father served as a peacemaker, reconciler, a mediator amongst feuding households in Kosovo – a task that extends by means of my grandfather and ancestors. As a household of monks, we had been all the time there for all neighbors and fellow residents grappling with issues, comparable to, for instance, blood feuds. In such conditions, each Serbs and Albanians would all the time attain out to us. My ancestors persistently performed a task in mediation and reconciliation, passing down this present to me. Thus, by respecting and cherishing my household and persevering with its traditions, I’m dedicated to actively fostering reconciliation amongst Serbian households in Kosovo, Albanian households in Kosovo, and, most difficult of all, reconciliation between Serbian and Albanian households. I consider that the power for profitable mediation is a present from God, inherited from my household.
Beginning enterprise operations within the communist period
At the moment, the President of SFR Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, visited Peć/Peja. The Mayor of Peć introduced Tito with the album “Peć within the nineteenth Century, and Peć At the moment”, the work by my brother Zoran. Tito was impressed by the efforts of our firm, launched to him as the primary family-owned enterprise by the Mayor of Peć. He acknowledged that our firm and household enterprise posed no risk to the constitutional order of Yugoslavia on the time and expressed help for our firm’s improvement. This transpired virtually fifty years in the past. After the encouragement and help we obtained from President Tito, we established three factories, and the workforce steadily elevated. These had been manufacturing crops that included producing gear for mini-bakeries, a plant for specialised gear primarily based on Italian know-how, gear for meat processing, attachments and spare components for tractors and different agricultural equipment, in addition to the manufacturing of non-standard screw merchandise, and so forth. That’s how we turned the primary non-public and family-owned firm, not simply in Yugoslavia but in addition in your complete communist world. Our non-public enterprise primarily consisted of manufacturing unit manufacturing, and we rapidly turned a worldwide phenomenon. At the moment, main world publications, from the Chinese language Zhenmin Zhibao to the New York Instances, wrote about us. The Washington Submit additionally started protecting the event of personal entrepreneurship and enterprise in Yugoslavia, questioning if this represented profitable and blissful capitalism. Throughout that point, we obtained super help from the U.S. Embassy in Yugoslavia. The help for these, and all our different merchandise, was distinctive.
Mikhail Gorbachev assumed the presidency of the Soviet Union and through his first go to to Yugoslavia, our authorities promptly proposed showcasing our firm and introducing him with our operations. After gaining perception into our firm’s actions, President Gorbachev instructed Nikolai Ryzhkov, the Prime Minister of the Soviet Union, to request that we offer an summary of our enterprise actions in Peć and all through Kosovo and Metohija.
Three months later, we obtained an invite from the Kremlin to go to Moscow. There, Prime Minister Ryzhkov prolonged immense help on behalf of President Gorbachev, offering us with every thing mandatory to duplicate in Russia what we had been creating in Yugoslavia. Subsequently, with full conviction, I can state that ‘Perestroika’ in Russia began due to us. We had been the primary to determine non-public corporations in communist Russia as properly.
The event of our corporations in capitalism and initiatives for peace and cooperation
Our enterprise operations have continued to dynamically and efficiently evolve, experiencing a real flourishing inside a market-liberal system. The profitable progress of our corporations has led to a considerable enhance in employment and technological innovation.
We’ve got persistently been leaders and pioneers within the improvement of latest industries. We established the primary Web firm, the primary non-public financial institution, the primary non-public tv, the primary non-public insurance coverage firm and the primary non-public college.
In the course of the Nineties, when Milošević got here to energy, assisted by Mahmut Bakali, a high-ranking official in Yugoslavia on the time, I initiated a possible for settlement with Ibrahim Rugova, who made each effort to attain a peaceable decision in Kosovo. Nonetheless, throughout that point, we fell sufferer to misunderstandings inside our personal ranks. Had our facet permitted for the implementation of my ‘Karić Mannequin for Shared Prosperity’ to foster reconciliation and profitable improvement, peace will surely have been be ensured, together with the profitable financial, social, and cultural improvement of Kosovo. I proposed state participation within the implementation of my Mannequin by privatizing 51% of the capital of all corporations in Kosovo, promoting them to international corporations from technologically superior international locations, and distributing 49% of the capital’s worth to the employees. Had my Mannequin been applied, there would have been no conflict, and Kosovo could be a extremely developed area right now. I authored a 73-page research at the moment, which Mahmut Bakali endorsed, deeming it helpful for my Mannequin to be applied step-by-step. Relating to schooling, I proposed conducting it within the native language for every ethnic group, together with familiarity with the literature in mom tongue in addition to the cultural values of 1’s individuals.
Within the 12 months 2000, I prolonged an invite to Adem Demaçi to go to Serbia with an financial delegation and to seem on BK Tv. We agreed to instantly provoke financial rapprochement between the economies of Serbia and Kosovo. The primary joined conferences of enterprise group had been held in Kosovo adopted by Albania, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, garnering state help in all these areas besides Serbia. The authorities on the time didn’t endorse us, as they misunderstood the ‘Karić Mannequin for Shared Prosperity’. After we gathered 100 businessmen in Brezovica and Pristina, trying to consolidate financial cooperation and joint endeavors between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo and different areas, I used to be denounced as a traitor to Serbia. My household and I confronted persecution orchestrated by the facilities of energy and curiosity teams related to (Vojislav) Koštunica. There have been even two assassination makes an attempt towards me. This was as a result of my humanitarian efforts, humanistic and common sense perception that Serbs and Albanians ought to coexist, collaborate, and progress collectively, whereas rejecting illicit amuggling and the vested pursuits of sure circles. Enterprise leaders construct bridges and destroy borders, whereas some politicians construct partitions and destroy bridges!
“Karić Mannequin for Shared Prosperity”
My economic-development mannequin (Karić Mannequin for Shared Prosperity), which I proposed to the management of Serbia on the time, held relevance and significance not just for our complete area, but in addition for the worldwide group as a result of its common character. It stays crucial, each then and now, to safe the mandatory funding funds and set up joint corporations, with a main concentrate on involving corporations from Serbia and Albania. Collaborative efforts between Albanians and Serbs wouldn’t solely improve the employment charge in Kosovo and past, but in addition set up new types of enterprise cooperation, in the end eliminating present tensions and unrest. The issue was that the politicians in energy at the moment had been unwilling to allow it. The felony facilities of energy and curiosity teams underneath Koštunica favored an unstable state of affairs over peace, permitting them to use the northern a part of Kosovo for his or her illicit actions.
In 2004, I used to be the one candidate for the President of Serbia who visited Kosovo, and my rallies had been attended by each Albanians and Serbs. I acknowledged that we must always abolish all borders and reside and work collectively. We can’t reside aside. It was my perception that in collaboration with our Euro-Atlantic allies, we must always attempt for peace, prosperity, and financial improvement for all inhabitants of those troubled areas. Nonetheless, the response to my efforts was that Koštunica closed down all our corporations and rigged the presidential election.
At the moment, for instance, Serbs dwelling in Kosovo discover themselves in probably the most tough place, as a result of with out cooperation with Albanians, the merchandise they create can’t be offered to anybody, and financial exercise and cooperation are of utmost significance. If we had been to safe the mandatory funds right now, we might implement my Mannequin enabling Serbs and Albanians to determine joint corporations and to work collectively. Giant-scale corporations from Serbia and Albania might take part on this initiative, fostering financial exercise, progress, employment, and total well-being for the individuals of Kosovo. I assure that with such initiatives, there could be no conflict, and peace and social concord could be achieved. I’m a person from Kosovo, I do know the mentality. Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo reside off the identical land, drink the identical water, and have the identical mentality. Tolerance is much more mandatory now than within the nineties, and Serbs presently residing in Kosovo can’t do with out Albanians.
Even right now, my Mannequin has no different. Each Serbs and Albanians see Serbian corporations as companions they need to cooperate with, exporting their merchandise and importing mandatory items. After any conflict or battle, one should sit down on the negotiating desk, as a result of solely by means of dialogue, negotiations, and aligning the pursuits of negotiating events can options be discovered, primarily within the curiosity of the individuals. The dominant attribute of this mannequin is the creation of an financial basis for the institution of long-term financial cooperation between the events that had been in battle. The primary purpose of this cooperation, primarily based on constant utility of the precept of coexistence, ought to be to create situations for a greater lifetime of residents. This entails eliminating the important thing causes of conflicts and investing most power in creating a brand new frequent future for residents. The implementation of the Karić Mannequin for Shared Prosperity implies primarily the creation of joint corporations (Serbian and Albanian), guaranteeing financial progress and all the advantages that include it, together with the need for peace. To date, no authorities has been keen to nominate me as a negotiator with Kosovo authorities, regardless of my private 33-year-long intense dedication to searching for an environment friendly and efficient resolution to resolve the battle in Kosovo. As soon as once more, I emphasize, the Karić Mannequin for Shared Prosperity entails 100% implementation of joint manufacturing, joint work, joint financial system and harmonious coexistence of Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo. This Mannequin can also be relevant to the state of affairs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, your complete area, and even in Ukraine. I see this mannequin as a paradigm of the consortium that may have interaction in reconstruction, constructing and guaranteeing financial progress in Ukraine after the conflict.
Ultimate concerns and name to motion
I lengthen a name and earnest plea to people wielding affect over financial and political processes to acknowledge the significance of implementing this Mannequin for attaining peace and financial improvement, significantly in our area. Subsequently, I direct this enchantment to esteemed organizations and potential sponsors/donors, and particularly to Their Excellencies ambassadors, scientists, professors, and businessmen of authority. I stand prepared and at your disposal to actively take part in all reconciliation efforts and contribute to the institution of higher financial cooperation all through the Western Balkans. Collectively, we will work for the advantage of all peoples on this area and past.
This proposition is underscored by my century-long enterprise expertise. I say it’s a hundred years lengthy, as a result of I’ve been working double shifts for over 50 years, dedicating the final decade completely to peacemaking and humanitarian actions, to assist my nation, our area and all these all over the world who’re struggling to interrupt free from the shackles of backwardness and underdevelopment, and to expertise a “catapult” into sustainable progress and improvement.
My most real aspiration is to witness the implementation of the ‘Karić Mannequin for Shared Prosperity’ first in Kosovo, restoring peace to its residents of all nationalities, creating financial, authorized and organizational situations for work and financial actions, establishing mandatory order, and thereby creating the conditions for a shared life and creation!
About creator: Bogoljub J. Karić was born in 1954 in Peć. He graduated from the College of Pure Sciences and Arithmetic on the College of Priština, majoring in geography. He earned his grasp’s diploma in “Group and Improvement of Small Enterprise” from the College of Economics in Niš. In 1971, alongside his three brothers and sister, he established the family-owned manufacturing unit “Braća Karić” in Peć. Over practically 5 many years, he developed a large-scale firm with operations spanning varied sectors globally, together with telecommunications, development, finance, schooling, media, commerce, and so forth.
The views expressed on this article are the creator’s personal and don’t essentially replicate IFIMES official place.
[1] IFIMES – Worldwide Institute for Center East and Balkan Research, primarily based in Ljubljana, Slovenia, has a particular consultative standing with the United Nations Financial and Social Council ECOSOC/UN in New York since 2018, and it’s the writer of the worldwide scientific journal “European Views.”
[2] The article relies on a presentation delivered on the twenty third Belgrade Enterprise Discussion board held on 28 November 2023, in Belgrade.