Kosovo becoming more competitive

Ljubljana, SLOVENIA, 04 June (STA) – An international conference on investment opportunities in Kosovo taking place in Ljubljana on Wednesday heard that Kosovo’s business environment had a rising appeal for foreign investors and was catching up on other countries in the region.

Kosovo was attractive to foreign investors especially due to low taxes, fast registration of companies, transparent legislation regarding foreign investments and flexible workforce. Slovenian companies were among the first to invest in Kosovo. The biggest investors currently are telco Telekom Slovenije, fuel trader Petrol, home appliances maker Gorenje, Semenarna, a company producing and selling plant seeds and seedlings, and logistics company Intereuropa.

Shpend Ahmeti of the Kosovo GAP Institute for Advanced Studies think thank said that Kosovo’s export amounted to between EUR 90m and EUR 130m, while import of this young Balkan country reached some EUR 1.3bn. Ahmeti and Salvador Elmazi of the Energy and Mining Ministry stressed that there is a lot of potential for investors in the field of energy, as Kosovo still faced electricity reductions. Ahmeti said at the conference, held by the Institute for Strategic Studies, Public Agency for Entrepreneurship and Foreign Investments and AmCham, that Slovenian investors had shown an increased interest in Kosovo’s pension funds.

Ibrahin Krasniqi of the Kosovo Trade and Industry Ministry said that Kosovo had a good banking system which had been set up in 1999, when all banks had been privatised. According to the Investment Promotion Agency of Kosovo, the Slovenian Nova Ljubljanska banka was the third largest investor in the financial sector, following the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank and German Procredit Bank.

Slovenian News Agency (STA)