Prishtinë, 08.05.2012 – Minister of Economic Development, Besim Beqaj, accompanied by the Mayor of Drenas, Nexhat Demaku, on Tuesday visited the Enterprise NewCo Ferronikeli in Drenas.

On this occasion, Minister Beqaj said that Ferronikeli has proven successful and has also shown prudency towards environment protection. “Company Ferronikeli is showing its successes, making capital investments and recently also showing particular attention to the environment, making investments of over €12 million, and installing important measurement equipment”, said Minister Beqaj, and added that the company directly contributes in contractual relations, having over 200 contractors.

In addition, Minister Beqaj said that Ferronikeli has over 1 thousand employees, which strongly contributes to the budget. “It is one of the largest contractors of KEK, and Railroad contractors, and the Kosovo Government is interested to address together all issues and reach an understanding with the company”, said Beqaj, also commending Ferronikeli for its implementation of social projects.

”We have commended Ferronikeli for its social projects, such as the road construction and other projects, in cooperation with the municipality”, said minister Beqaj.

Minister Beqaj offered the Ferronikeli management governmental cooperation, which according to him is in the best interest of the people. “We offered our governmetn’s cooperation, and institutional support for anything that falls under our scope, to the benefit of the 1,000 employees and the municipality, and the wellbeing of the enterprise and its stability, but we have to always respect all obligations of the Company in relation with the state and the environment, including obligations for the enterprise’s employees” said Beqaj.

Further, he stated that two ministries, Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Environment, have been fully harmonized in terms of integrated environment licenses and they have encouraged all companies entering such a process to promptly meet all standards.

“For us, it is encouraging that the company is also under an international certification process for environmental standards, and this is an additional argument, because we are not only speaking of a national level permit, but rather of international standards” said Minister Beqaj.

On the other hand, Nexhat Demaku, Mayor of Drenas, stated that he is already informed on the investments made in preventing environmental pollution and installation of precipitators. “I believe that this is an extraordinary good work, and positive commitment of the Ferronikeli management, making an investment to the betterment of the people” concluded Demaku.

The General Director of Ferronikeli, Janis Moutafis, thanked Minister Beqaj and Mayor Demaku for their visit to the company, and said that he counts on institutional support.

“We are convinced that we will continue to improve our plant. We have also applied for a APPC license, and we have received several comments from the Ministry of Environment, the answers of which we have already prepared, but it has to be made clear that this a new process also for the Government of Kosovo, and I cannot say how long it will take. Hopefully, we will soon overcome this and obtain the relevant license”, said Moutafis.