Prishtina, February 26, 2015 – Unleashing development opportunities
in rural Kosovo requires access to communication infrastructure and
information. In this vein, the World Bank and the Ministry of Economic
Development of Kosovo have officially launched the first phase of a
grant-financed technical assistance project entitled “Innovative and
Green Growth for Rural Areas of Kosovo”, aimed at providing an
analytical foundation for the extension of broadband Internet
infrastructure to currently underserved rural municipalities of Kosovo,
creating a sustainable platform for innovative and green growth.

It is those rural municipalities in Kosovo with the highest
concentration of poor households (the part of the population which is
below 40 percent of income in Kosovo) who are also suffering from a lack
of reliable and affordable broadband Internet infrastructure. According
to government estimates, 43 percent of rural households are currently
unconnected to the broadband, and one-third of these households—without
an all inclusive intervention—are unlikely to be connected to the
network anytime soon.

To this end, the conducted activity is directly aligned with the Kosovo
Information Communication Technology sector strategy “The Electronic
Communication Sector Policy – Digital Agenda for Kosova 2013–2020”, ,
which establishes coverage and broadband Internet speed goals that must
be achieved at the per-capita and household level. In particular, this
activity will result in:

•    A broadband market study, analyzing the current broadband demand and forecast on a municipality level for 2015-2020;
•    A technical analysis of existing broadband infrastructure,
dimensioning, and an assessment of infrastructure deployment initiatives
for universalization of broadband access, including an accompanying
sensitivity analysis;
•    A financial analysis that will estimate the deployment investment
and operating costs for each part of the network per type of technology;
and
•    A set of recommendations concerning the viability of private-public
partnerships as a way to address low connectivity in the selected
underserved municipalities.

“Low availability of broadband connectivity holds back not only
development of the local telecom and Information Technology sector, but
also the arrival of multiple benefits associated with Information
Communication Technologies and ICT-enabled green growth, such as
regional economic integration, online employment generation, development
of smart infrastructure, and optimization of public service delivery
through e-services,” said Agim Kukaj, the Head of Post,
Telecommunications, Information and Communication Technology Department
of the Ministry of Economic Development of Kosovo. “What is also
important to note is that in contrast to the European Union, Kosovo has a
significantly higher share of rural and youth population: the majority
of our population is rural and over one-third is 18 years old or
younger. It is evident that by extending broadband Internet to the rural
areas, the government will unfold new opportunities—in particular, for
the youth—which tends to be more technologically savvy than other age
groups. These opportunities will entail job creation through ICTs and
skills development, both of which are essential for increasing the
country’s competitiveness.”

The underserved rural municipalities either have isolated settlements
and low population density or are located in mountainous terrain. The
experience of over more than a decade of worldwide internet access
infrastructure rollout proves that the deployment costs of setting up
broadband connections in such challenging geographical areas are
multiple times those in urban areas. Even if such deployment does take
place, the cost of the broadband service is usually not affordable for
the rural, often relatively poorer population. Without well-crafted
government interventions in rural areas, which include the use of public
funds, the universality of broadband service cannot be achieved.

“The Government of Kosovo took an important step in identifying where
exactly the connectivity access gaps lie and how best to address them
from technological and financial perspectives,” added Natalija
Gelvanovska, Senior Information Communication Technology Policy
Specialist at the World Bank. “Across developing countries,
telecommunications data on rural broadband availability is neither
systematically collected, nor analyzed by any government. Because of
these ‘white spots’, it is often challenging to determine precise
broadband coverage, dynamics of the coverage and pricing development,
and, most importantly, to understand how to bridge the connectivity gaps
leveraging private and public funding. A proper analysis of access
infrastructure gaps is, therefore, instrumental in designing the right
type of policies and action plans for the benefit of the unconnected
population. We are happy to bring to Kosovo the best international
practices in telecom and ICT from the region (the EU) and recognized
global leaders such as, for instance, Korea.”

This activity is financed through the Korea Green Growth Trust Fund
until end-December 2015, and is the second World Bank technical
assistance to Kosovo in the telecommunications sector. The first
technical assistance, “Facilitation of Efficient Infrastructure
Sharing”, launched on January 5, 2015, is dedicated to the
commercialization of fiber optic assets owned by the electricity utility
KOSTT J.S.C. for the possible benefit of Internet Service Providers
without their own broadband infrastructure, as well as the population
that is currently underserved with access to high-speed connectivity.