During the last few years, Kosovo has recorded slow economic growth. Also, why according to the current Government, the country's economy has progressed with an average growth of 7.9 percent, although this growth is not considered real by the founder of the Institute for Developmental Research "Riinvest", Muhamet Mustafa. According to him, with the decline in investments and exports, the country has slowed economic growth.
Speaking about the factors that have hit the country's economy, he estimates that the measures imposed by the European Union against Kosovo should be removed as soon as possible, for which he says that the government should coordinate with international allies as much as possible.
In an interview, Mustafa asks the government to facilitate the activities of businesses with various measures, and also in this direction to improve the image of the country in order to have more foreign investments.
"Kosovo in these last years has an economic growth, but slowed down compared to the situation before COVID, that is, it is a slowed down growth. Investments have fallen, public investments especially in the last few years, so export has a much smaller increase or a decrease compared to previous years. So when there is less investment, less export, it is natural for economic growth to slow down. The government should facilitate with various measures the activities of businesses and promote an entrepreneurship, an image of Kosovo to attract foreign investments. In this regard, the government has a lot of work to do to overcome this trend, which is not very favorable", says Mustafa.
As for the climate of doing business, Mustafa says that despite the government's promises in this direction, concrete results are still not seen in terms of removing barriers in this direction.
"The climate of doing business, we have not seen in the report that we have presented an improvement, maybe in some the situation remains the same. An example of corruption, transparency, and some other activities, something that the government has done, but is not implementing, is the list of about 28 administrative obstacles that businesses have and to start removing those obstacles. We have welcomed that the list has been made, but it is still not their implementation and removal, the administrative barriers that make life difficult for businesses, and people do not immediately understand the need to carry out the work from banks, guarantees, administration and any country negligence, permits, etc., still make life difficult and hinder the investment activity in Kosovo", adds Mustafa.
Mustafa says that the country still faces problems in education, health and others. According to him, there is a need for the government to base its decisions on a better professional, scientific and research evidence, and also to create a cooperation with educational institutions.
"It is essential that we have a low investment activity behind us. Government investments, subsidies and budget interventions have been non-selective, neither have they chosen social problems nor have a focus to increase investments and increase employment. The population rate has decreased, but it is not the result of the opening of new jobs, it is the result of population migration, which is a very serious problem. In other words, the problems are the drop in exports, insufficient investments, labor migration, these are very serious problems that the government must deal with, to soften the trend. We have problems in education, health, there is a lot of work for the government to create a new model of economic growth that is based on the greater competitiveness of the Kosovo economy and the creation of a greater and competitive offer that can compete in export.
There is a need for the government to base its decisions on better professional, scientific and research evidence, to create a collaboration with educational institutions and to get out of a situation where we have a growth with a slowing trend", he says.
Meanwhile, the measures of the EU towards Kosovo for a long time now remain worrying. While Mustafa says that these measures are unfair, he believes that a lot of coordination is needed from the government with international allies.
"(The measures of the EU) are unfair, especially when we see what measures the European Commission is taking towards Serbia, which, as we can see, is behaving irresponsibly and with many provocations in many areas every day. Therefore, Kosovo is still not withdrawing these measures, but we hope that it will be removed, otherwise they will hinder us even more, because now the investment of 6 billion in the Western Balkans is coming as part of the economic investment plan for the Western Balkans, and Kosovo can to damage more than 300 million so far. Kosovo should undertake some activities that are agreed with the international community, undertake what is necessary, bring itself to a more pro-active position and withdraw from a defensive situation as it has been until now", says Mustafa for kp.
We remind you that the measures decided by the European Union were decided last year as a result of not meeting the demands of the EU and the United States for the extension of the situation in the north of Kosovo.
