The former salt and coalmining city of Tuzla in the heart of Bosnia & Herzegovina has taken on the challenge of competing in the global knowledge market. The Mayor of Tuzla, Mr Jasmin Imamovic, is fully aware of the fact that young people of today have their eyes wide open for the modern world and demands to connect with this world, both in their future professional life, and in their cultural life. The tools for this are very much connected to modern technologies and to ICT technology in particular.

Talents, Tolerance and Technology is the slogan which the Municipality of Tuzla brands in the struggle for winning the young inhabitant's confidence envisioning Tuzla as a highly educated, well connected and prosperous city with a unique quality of life. Reaching this goal will obviously take som effort. However, the city of Tuzla has great resources in its 50000 youngsters and students. When these youngsters find good opportunity and arenas for utilizing their creative energy in a profitable way, they represent a very powerful resource, not only for Tuzla itself, but for the region.

SINTEF's own vision - Technology for a better society - complies perfectly with the strategy of Tuzla. Since the year 2004 SINTEF has helped the city of Tuzla materialize their strategy by building a modern innovation centre. This centre is situated in the "Stari Grad" (Old City) overlooking the main square where salt excavation took place 6000 years ago.

The Minicipality of Tuzla, the University of Tuzla and the Norwegian company SIVA (The industrial development corporation of Norway) are close co-operating partners in this endeavour. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign affairs is funding and strongly supporting this co-operative project from the Norwegian side.

SINTEF is also engaged in innovation development projects in Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia. Our goal is to combine these projects in a strong development network which will grow increasingly attractive as co-operative partners for international companies that consider engaging in the Balkan market.

For more information, see the BIT centres home site: www.bit.ba