Prishtinë, 28.02.2017 – The government is making maximum efforts to conduct economic reforms, in line with the requirements of the Stabilization and Association Agreement, which includes approximation of legislation, trade policies, rule of law and fight against corruption, were some of the things emphasized during the workshop “Dialogue for Investments”, organized by the Council of European Investors (CEI) and the Government of Kosovo, held in Prishtina today.

Prime Minister Isa Mustafa said in this occasion that economic development is a priority of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo and this development is based on a continuous dialogue with businesses, and business associations, in order to build joint economic policies.
“We can say that we managed to improve not only the doing business environment, but also improve our ranking in the World Bank Doing Business Index, by taking place 65. Also, recently at the World Forum of Investors, Kosovo Government won the award of the “Best government in the South East Europe for supporting entrepreneurship”. We also have the assessment of “Heritage” Foundation, which ranked Kosovo in place 46 in the World for economic freedoms”, he said.

In his part, Minister of Economic Development, Blerand Stavileci said that 2017 will be the year of the much discussed “Kosova e Re” power plant, for which we conducted negotiations with American investors for over a year, on the other hand many dialoguing platforms were developed with strategic partners of this project, overall with the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

“From next week we will enter the final stage that will lead to signing of the commercial agreement. During this time we tried to do the outmost in order to have this project include the requirements of international community, alongside many economic benefits that it brings”, said Stavileci.

He showed that in April, the American investor in cooperation with the Government and the World Bank will open the tendering package for the construction of the power plant and this will precede the construction, which is due to start next year, and assessed that this will be a message for European investors and wider.

While speaking about the mining sector, Stavileci said that after 17 years, there is now a legal solution for “Trepça”, while the feasibility study for this company will be ready this year, and that will be followed by a proposition of proper economic models, which will be more than a window of opportunities for opening investments in “Trepça”.

The Head of the EU Office in Prishtina, Nataliya Apostolova said that they have identified all obstacles and that there is a progress, however we have to be mindful of several aspects. “The purpose of this meeting is to call all relevant authorities for certain issues, identify problems over which we have different views. This event should not be seen only as an event where we need to discuss, but it should be considered as a platform, where we will have constitutive discussions, where they need to be transformed into concrete decisions”, she said.

Further, the Minister of Finance, Avdullah Hoti said that we are closing a new circle of reforms through which local businesses are made more competitive in European Union, and added that economic growth came thanks to these reforms and good cooperation with chambers of commerce and businesses.