In the presentation of the “Competitiveness in Southeast Europe: Policy Outlook 2018” project, a publication of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) relating to economic policies in the region of Southeast Europe, it is stated that improvement of competitiveness is one of the key elements for membership of Western Balkan countries in the European Union.
Arbëreshë Krasniqi, Acting Minister of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, said that the document containing 17 areas or dimensions, completed between Kosovo stakeholders and OECD representatives, is one of OECD's major publications and one of the most comprehensive assessments of economic policy in the region of Southeast Europe.
"This publication defines a sustainable structural reform agenda for greater economic competitiveness in Southeast Europe, and supports other strategic documents and processes, such as the European Commission Progress Reports and Economic Reform Programs", said Krasniqi.
Krasniqi considered that through this report it can be assessed the progress of pro-competitive policy reforms in comparison with the Western Balkan countries, such as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, in 17 policy areas, such as in: investment and promotion, trade policies, access to finance, fiscal policies, of competition, state-owned enterprises, education and competencies, employment policies, technology and innovation science, digital science, transport, energy, environmental policy, agriculture, public and anti-corruption policies.
“The MTI, through KIESA as coordinator of this process, in cooperation with governmental and nongovernmental institutions, has collected data and coordinated cooperation meetings with each representative of the institutions involved in these processes. The collected information was sent to the OECD representatives, who conducted the assessment of that information. We are now at the phase of publishing the 2018 Report, which, if compare it with the last report published in 2016, has shown a progress, but there is still much to be done to implement these policies. At the same time, we assure OECD representatives that we will maximally commit to the implementation of the recommendations, especially of those where there is stagnation, and in hope that in the next publication we will be at a higher level than this year”, said Krasniqi.
The Acting Minister, Arbëreshë Krasniqi, stated that the Ministry of Trade and Industry continues to work on increasing the competitiveness of Kosovo SMEs through concrete programs.
She also stated that “As a direct actor in the outcomes and recommendations of the publication, we are delighted to take this opportunity to welcome you to this event. From the attendees, we expect that at the end of this meeting we will receive the recommendation of the publication, in order to improve the dimensions where there is room for improvement”.