Vienna hosted the “ICT Sector in Kosovo – Opportunities and Incentives” event to marks the beginning of new potential partnerships for Kosovo and Austrian businesses.
The event, facilitated by ACCESS project in cooperation with Kosovo Investment and Enterprise Support Agency – KIESA, and funded by Austrian Development Agency, which provided an opportunity for Kosovo ICT companies to penetrate international markets, specifically by helping them find foreign clients to export services.
The event brought together Kosovo Government representatives, the Minister for Industry, Entrepreneurship and Trade Rozeta Hajdari and Deputy Minister of Economy Mentor Arifaj with Austrian Economic Chambers (WKO) Vice President Dr. Philipp Gady.
In her address, Minister Hajdari said: “By now, it is fairly evident that digital technologies have the potential to boost more inclusive and sustainable growth by spurring innovation, generating efficiencies and improving services. In Kosovo, digital adoption has taken a significant leap at both the organizational and industry levels, and we are committed to accelerating it further by prioritizing digitalization and innovation in our policy agendas.”
Kosovo is and remains a very attractive market with high economic potential given its relatively low wage costs and a young, multilingual population. Among other sectors, service industries with a focus on ICT, software development, blockchain technology, web application development, but also advertising, design and accounting are being heavily developed, making Kosovo a country worth investing in.
The ICT sector has been growing for years and is now one of the strongest sectors with the highest growth potential. The attractiveness of the sector is further boosted by the country’s high-speed broadband internet investments as well as the government’s investment plans for the development of human capital to match the digital economy.
Kosovo and Austrian businesses held B2B meetings for new potential partnerships. Among others, 16 selected companies from Kosovo are meeting to find partners in the following areas:
- IT-Security
- Cloud-Services (SaaS)
- Web Development
- IT- (user) support
- Data science
- Industry-related software programming
The event presents opportunities for Austrian companies in the development of know-how, human capital in the field of digitization and in the area of e-commerce. Nevertheless, despite serving as a bridge between Kosovo and Austrian companies, the event is a facilitator for further strengthening the ties between both countries.