The current economic crisis caused by the pandemic, the most serious crisis since 1929, has shown that resource-based economies, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, are seriously suffering the consequences of the global economic slowdown. The terms of foreign trade have worsened, especially for our export structure, which mainly consists of raw materials and semi-finished products. However, this economic crisis helps to further clarify and highlight our biggest problem – the huge lack of knowledge and technology use in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which weakens the competitive potential of local companies and the overall economy. This conclusion is the result of an analysis that shows that Bosnia and Herzegovina does not use its potential enough – the education system, scientists, entrepreneurs, etc. – and thus misses the opportunity to be competitive on the international market and improve its development and revenues. It is predicted that after this economic crisis, globalization could be less focused on the liberalization of goods and capital flows, and more on the liberalization of knowledge and ideas flows. Consequently, the best way, globally, to overcome this bad position is to create good conditions for the production of goods and services with high added value, based on knowledge. Bosnia and Herzegovina faces the challenge of building competitiveness through the systematic acquisition, use and transfer of knowledge and encouraging innovation in the economy and society as a whole. The recommendations proposed in this paper – improving the use of knowledge in the economy, improving education, creating an institutional framework for encouraging innovation and technology transfer and improving the business climate – are some of the important measures for creating a knowledge economy. However, the implementation of these measures requires the joint action of all key actors in society: the public sector, the business community, the educational and research community, and civil society.