Prishtina,  08.05.2023 – – Under the auspices of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, the Vienna Economic Forum is holding the “Vienna Economic Talks – Prishtina 2023” conference for the first time in Prishtina today.

The conference was attended by the Minister of Economy of the Republic of Kosovo, jointly with Prime Minister Albin Kurti, the Minister of Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure, Liburn Aliu, and the Minister of Industry, Entrepreneurship and Trade, Rozeta Hajdari.

In her speech delivered at the session on sustainable investments in crisis time and fragmented environment, Minister Rizvanolli underlined that the aggression in Ukraine has reinforced the fact that energy security is a matter of national security and in this respect, she said that energy independence is more important than ever before.

Minister Rizvanolli stated that renewable energy sources are sources ensuring energy independence and also protecting the environment, given the emerging climate changes.

She stated that energy efficiency is a top priority under the Energy Strategy, which includes making investments in this sector, including the EU €75 million fund, whereby investments will be made in the efficiency of houses, as well as subsidizing efficient appliances for families and equipment for small and medium-sized businesses.

In outlining the Government’s work, Rizvanolli emphasized, inter alia, the work is currently being done in:

– Constructing the 100 MW solar KEK park, which will enable KEK and KEK’s employees to be part of the country’s objective energy transition, thus increasing generation capacities;

– Implementing the project of a solar-powered heating plant, with a capacity of 50 MW, which will serve around 60,000 citizens in Prishtina, and which is one of the largest projects in Europe.

– Making the largest energy investment in the history of the Republic of Kosovo, i.e. the MCC Compact Program on building the largest storage capacities per capita in Europe.