Conference on Higher Education and Cooperation with Agribusiness Sector

On September 21, 2017, the Faculty of Agriculture, in cooperation with the Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences (Germany), organized the Conference on Higher Education and Cooperation with Agribusiness Sector on the premises of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Republic of Srpska.

As it was pointed out during the opening ceremony, the conference was organized in order to identify the possibilities of improving higher education in the field of agriculture and harmonize it with the needs and challenges of agricultural industries through an exchange of experiences between representatives of academic community and business people, taking into account the trends in the EU and the countries of former Yugoslavia.

The latter was discussed in the addresses of renowned scholars and business people from Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Serbia and Montenegro, while the former was dealt with by Prof. Zeljko Vasko, Head of the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, University of Banja Luka, and Mr Sasa Trivic, Chairman of Employers’ Associations Union.

In her welcome speech on behalf of the host institution, Prof. Gordana Rokvic pointed out that the conference was yet one of the activities in a prolific cooperation of the two institutions, which began in the form of staff and student exchange to be elevated, in the past two years, to the level of organizing a joint project aiming at improving the results of higher education in the field of agriculture and launching a joint study programme designed to offer solutions for challenges the industry faces in everyday life.

The significance of cooperation between the two institutions, as well as the one between academic society and agribusiness sector in general, was highlighted in the addresses of H. E. Mrs Christine Hohmann, German ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr Johannes Holzner, agri-economics professor of the Weihenstephan University, Dr Radoslav Gajanin, Vice-Rector of the University of Banja Luka, and Ms Radmila Pejic, Mr Sinisa Marcic and Mr Boris Pasalic, Assistant Ministers in the Ministry of Education and Culture, Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management in the Government of the Republic of Srpska respectively.