Prishtina, 18.12.2018 – Minister of Economic Development, Valdrin Lluka, is staying in Rome, Italy, where he was met by Italy’s Minister of Economy, Giovanni Tria, and various state representatives with whom he initiated mutual cooperation in the field of economy, with a special focus on the establishment of an agency of participations, organization of a visit of Italian businesses in Kosovo, and the establishment of a regional public policy school, with the aim of enhancing the skills of civil servants.

Minister Lluka, accompanied by former Italian Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema,  who was in charge of the Italian government in the period 1998-2002 and who helped our country before and after the war, informed the Italian counterpart Tria about the potential of the economy Kosovo in the energy and mining sectors, as well as its economic zones, where the combination of low operating costs, cheap labor, low taxes and the appropriate geographic position, can become Italian companies more competitive in the European market.

Ideas were also exchanged on how to apply the Italian model of state participation in the economy, increasing the value of public assets before and after privatization.

Italy is known for successful privatizations of public assets, being a non-managerial participant in the company. All this was accomplished since 1994 through the agency of participations, now known as the Deposit and Loan Facility (Cassa Depositi e Prestiti), which manages a portfolio of around 290 billion EUR and participates in public and private enterprises as a non-core shareholder, except in the country’s strategic assets.

In this spirit, Minister Lluka also met the Chief Executive Officer of the agency, Fabrizio Palermo and the Italian Treasury General Director, who is also responsible for privatization, Alessandro Rivera, where they discussed on the establishment of such an agency in Kosovo with the aim of increasing the value of public assets through the involvement of private capital and private management, and agreed that a technical team from this agency would come to Kosovo in the first quarter of 2019 and start preparations for the establishment of this institution. Following the establishment of the agency, a visit of Italian investors will be organized, who would be interested to be part of this process.

Kosovo has the potential to develop its mining, energy and agricultural sectors through this agency.

At the end, the head of MED thanked his counterpart and the Italian state for the continued support to Kosovo, during the war, on its liberation, and during state building.