Since we are at the very beginning of forming this particular ministry, please tell us briefly about the latest developments and your contribution towards them in the sector of trade and industry.
As you know, Kosovo had been destroyed. It was not only the destruction of the war, but this process started many years before the war. The social sector has been systematically undermined and destroyed because there were no investments made since 1989 that sector at all. Around 150,000 workers were expelled from their jobs by the Serbian regime only the sole grounds of their Albanian ethnicity. The technology was not modernized and it has become quite old; the installed capacities were not used and what is worse the national and international trade relations Kosovo had were lost for the most part. After that came the war that caused further destruction by the military and police forces. By June 1999, the economy of Kosovo was totally destroyed, the private sector was totally robbed, this was the period when we most needed humanitarian help. 1999 and 2000 were years of social emergency periods, but what is more important, slowly the private sector started showing signs of recovery. Businessmen are very enthusiastic and with their efforts managed to started revive the private sector. In the last three years there have been 50.000 new registered SMEs, of course this does not mean that all of them function satisfactorily, but this number includes a lot of well-known successful companies. One problem that I have to mention here is that the development was mono-structure, production and manufacturing were very neglected so the economy has mainly developed thanks to the services sector and trade. This has generally been a result of the lack of investments. Kosovo though has a big potential, we have an area of 10.887 square Kilometers, including 25 square kilometers we gave to Macedonia, and it is very rich with several kinds of minerals, metals, like gold silver and lignite just to name a few of them.
Privatization could be the way for many of the manufacturing enterprises, what about the lengthy process how is this affecting the enterprises?
Yes, but we have a specific situation here. The social sector is awaiting privatization. The workers that work in that sector, the politicians and the rest of the population of Kosovo wants it to happen. As you know we are administrated by UNMIK and as far as the administration is concerned we are very grateful and respect the KFOR and UNMIK because they helped us to reborn, but the problem now is that this slow development of the privatization makes some enterprises lose capital that could be used later very effectively when the social property turns into private.
Which companies will be the pioneers of the privatization process?
There are 350 companies beginning from very big companies as: Trepca, the mining facility, then Ferronikeli, or KEK- the national electricity provider, that can become a public company later. These are companies that have received the biggest investments so far so we have to take special care of them, otherwise this capital will be destroyed in a year.
What about the mining and heavy industry, Kosovo has a renowned mining sector?
Mining together with the 350 above mentioned companies are all managed by UNMIK. The most important issue in our ministry is the development of the private sector, but this will only happen when these companies turn into private ones. Then they will be under the competences of this ministry. We wait for the privatization to begin for many reasons. First of all it will create opportunities for new investments, we will have new private management that will create new, more attractive activities. The new management mentality will be free from the socialist Psychology that we have here so far, and Second of all we will create a strong economical and political development and we will develop skills for trade and economy. That is one of the basic conditions for us to be able to integrate economically in the region and in Europe.
What is the strategy for privatization, which companies are to be the first and how do you plan to privatize them?
The companies will be divided in to three groups: the fist group-the companies that will become private, that are doing good, healthy and functioning. In the second group we will include the companies that need to be put on their legs first and privatized after. In the third group we will include the companies that do not have a chance for transformation. They will be declared insolvent, no mater how big they are, we are not going to save them because of some nostalgic feelings. Everybody is trying to establish small and medium size enterprises, establish new businesses etc., so why shall we waste money on trying to save some old, gigantic companies? We support the creation of SMEs, mostly because they are able to keep up with the international technological standards, they have effective management, they are engaged in international marketing and they are more competitive. Our priorities in our ministry include the training and retraining of young people up to the standards this according to the services and products that will be produced in our century. We now have an economy of mostly trade and services and to create an economy that produces also we have to use our natural resources beginning with agriculture, forestry, mineral resources, and human resources. These all enable us in the intensification of the private producer sector. It is a very interesting situation now here. The fact is that we do not have good conditions to save these kind of productions. There is a big difference between the Kosovo trade market and, for example Macedonia or Serbia. Our businessmen have to pay taxes of ten to fifteen percent, for the import of products from Macedonia.
| The situation is very bad especially on the border with Serbia, since there are no custom points at all in some places, with Macedonia it is slightly better, there are some custom points. The Ministry's biggest concern is that there is a lot of smuggling and corruption going on there on the uncontrolled parts of the border. We are also creating new laws for the customs, the equal market conditions etc. We will find and eliminate the corruption, economical crime, otherwise it the situation may explode one day.
Are you planning to establish especial free trade zones with the mentioned countries?
All the things have they own priorities. Certainly we would like to have free trade agreements with the surrounding countries, but first we will have to define the status of Kosovo. We are very skilled in integration and in creating zones, but we must first have our own "name", because unless we define our status, our name will disappear and all the efforts we made would be for nothing.
Mr. Minister you mentioned the case of Trepca, what do you expect from the privatization in this particular case?
When I was younger I used to work in Trepca and I was familiar with the situation there before I came to Prishtina. Though I was a professor in the University I worked in many companies. In the case of Trepca I would say that it has to be privatized. There were already some investments made before and some people claim to have privatized it already. There are many things that need to be verified, they can serve only as argumentation but even if they prove to be true, we have to keep in mind that they happened in a situation when Serbia used pressure to solve the future of Trepca. On the long run it has to get into private hands.
Mr. Minister what companies or what sectors were presented a special interest for foreign investors?
So far it's too early to talk about it, we don't have laws on foreign investments, but we are doing everything to create a functioning market economy with no corruption. We have already reliable information that the foreign investors are very interested to come here and they already found their interest here in Kosovo. The geopolitical situation is also very favorable for direct and indirect investments, cooperation, etc. because it will be able to link not only the markets of Europe but also African and Asian markets.
Which are the top ten companies ready for cooperation or for strategic investments?
First of all it's an industrial company in Share - Ferronikeli, also a factory producing car batteries, a factory producing batteries in Gjilan, which are able to incorporate and use considerable amount of investments. There are many other companies that with optimal investments can become very profitable and their products can get out of Kosovo and reach the world markets.
What would be your personal comments about the economy based on your professional experience?
The most urgent need we have is the legal infrastructure and it is our responsibility to create those laws. After that, the private sector will be more engaged in the economy; especially the SMEs will get stronger with the privatization. The third requisite we need for our development is a strategy! Before we create SMEs all over the country we need to have a firm infrastructure, we have to solve the problems we have with the roads, water, electricity, etc Another important thing for Kosovo is to be integrated, so that we do not have any enclaves like Mitrovica, where the Serbs live completely separated, but we don want any other enclaves of other minorities. What we want is a fair Kosovo for all, which will also create a safe environment for investments, to make fair decisions and national investments. We as a ministry will be ready to integrate all these ethnicities in our strategy and the only one language we want to use is the language of successful business.
Note: World Investment News Ltd cannot
be held responsible for the content of unedited
transcriptions.
|
V.I.P. INTERVIEWS 
