Prishtina, 30.04.2018 – Minister of Economic Development, Valdrin Lluka, presented investment opportunities to businessmen from Saudi Arabia, highlighting that sectors such as energy, water and mining, are potential sectors for foreign investors, and emphasized as an advantage the appropriate legal framework.

Lluka made these comments at the business forum “Kosovo-Saudi Arabia 2018” that took place in Prishtina, where in addition to investors from Saudi Arabia, representatives of economic sectors of the Government of Kosovo and local business associations were also present.

Minister Lluka said on this occasion that Kosovo, since its establishment as a state, has completed the legislation in line with the European Union requirements, together with European experts, in order to be more suitable to work on that market.

“It is important to note two laws; Law on Foreign Investments, which guarantees and secures foreign investors investing in Kosovo in many aspects, and Law on Strategic Investments, which is a law that allows the Government of Kosovo to enter into direct negotiations with foreign investors for any state asset which value can be increased, or generate a business from a foreign investor,” he added.

According to him, there are currently about 300 million EUR in foreign investments in Kosovo and all these investments take place in the country in order to target the European Union.

Further, Lluka added that Kosovo has agreements with many countries on protection of investments and hopes that this forum will be a starting point for such an agreement between Kosovo and Saudi Arabia.

Focusing on the resources provided by the country, Minister Lluka initially focused on energy, respectively renewable energy sources, which are supported by the government through feed-in tariffs, and represent a great potential for investments.

Lluka then spoke about mining resources. “We have 11 special interest zones, which the Government is in the process of opening. They are rich in lead, zinc, chrome and nickel. Finally we are working to operationalize the famous Trepça mine, where significant investments are expected. This mine has 84 different minerals, but the majority of minerals are lead, zinc and silver,” he said.

Other sectors with investment potential are the water sector and agriculture, said the Minister.

He added that to accommodate foreign investors, the Government has built several business parks and economic zones, and in certain areas land is offered up to 99 years without any compensation.