On December 19 2016, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Isa Mustafa, attended the regular meeting of the National Council for Economic Development, whereby it was discussed about the advancement of the economic agenda.
In the opening of the council’s works, Prime Minister Mustafa spoke about Kosovo’s visible economic developments and achievements. While emphasizing achievements in creating a favourable business enabling environment, Prime Minister Mustafa pointed out the results accomplished through fiscal policies, which have been established so far and that favour domestic products.
The Prime Minister stated that this Council and other forms of engagement as well, have contributed in maintaining economic development as our basic priority and also present certain results, which compared to the environment in which we are, are very good and encouraging for the future. This has allowed us to have economic development as a priority issue, regardless of the political environment in which we operated, which was not very suitable.
Mr. Mustafa welcomed the Women's Economic Forum in this Council, who is participating for the first time in the Council, whereby this Forum will also be a member of the Council. The aim is to strengthen the role of women in economic development, ensure their participation in building the economic policy and in interpreting and improving the current political environment.
Prime Minister Mustafa considered that we have managed to create a favourable doing business environment, either via the fiscal policies established so far, which are more in favour domestic products compared to those we had before, or because of our interaction in the overall economic policies in the region.
From the last meeting of the National Council for Development, he mentioned some of current processes. We have held the first meeting of the Stabilisation and Association Council in Brussels and have signed a framework agreement with the European Union, granting Kosovo access to EU programs, whereby some of these programs are very important for Kosovo businesses, such as “Cosme”, “Horizon” because they provide direct financial assistance to enterprises. The signing of this agreement will allow us faster access to such funds.
Additionally, Kosovo has improved its ranking within the World Bank’s Doing Business Index. Kosovo is now ranked in the 60th position compared to the 66th before, whereas we have made particular progress in indicators related to the set-up of businesses, beyond borders trading, and tax compliance, which represent three very important fields for our country.
Whereas, for next year, there are a number of projects that we plan to support, either with donations or in other forms, particularly in the field of agriculture, wherein a great achievement has been marked so far because we managed to meet the internal market demands for crops produced in Kosovo. We have managed to produce agricultural products which are competitive with other countries, and in this case I would like to extend my gratitude to USAID for supporting the new products, with which we have managed to access foreign markets and create a new culture of cultivating such products, and the Minister of Agriculture, who is present here today.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms. Hykmete Bajrami stated that the National Council for Economic Development, chaired by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, has been transformed into a functional public-private dialogue mechanism, which works in improving the business environment in the country, which is one of the top priorities of the Government of Kosovo, led by Prime Minister Mustafa.
“During this year, as you might be aware, we have marked a range of positive developments regarding the advancement of our economic agenda, and would like to thank the Prime Minister for his leadership, the colleagues from the NCED for their commitment, and the business associations as well, who were very active, cooperative and constructive, thereby contributing to the deepening of dialogue with government institutions in the function of facilitating the work of businesses, establishment of policies in favour of local businesses, and in attracting foreign investors” stated Minister Bajrami.
Minister Bajrami invoked all members of the NCED, as well as the members of four Task Forces under the ministries working in the improvement of business environment, to make maximal efforts for improving the indicators.
“I encourage all ministries and head of Task Forces to try upholding the deadlines with regard to the second cycle of reforms agreed in the first meeting. As the Prime Minister stated, there have been improvements in three indicators, but this is not sufficient. We would like to have improvements in all indicators. The World Bank report ranks the business environment compared to neighbouring countries, and we have to be competitive in order to improve our indicators”, stated minister Bajrami, adding that next year, when the health insurances commences, there is the possibility that if we fail to progress in other indicators, we will be doing a step-back in the World Bank doing business report.
Minister Bajrami also encouraged all ministers leading the different Task-Forces on the doing business indicators, to do their best in completing the short-term measures by 28th of February 2017, whereas for the other remaining measures, the deadline is 31st of May 2017.
Agenda of the Seventh Meeting: (Link to Agenda 7)
Minutes of the Seventh Meeting can be read here. (Link to Minutes of Meeting 7)
Official Announcement for the Meeting: http://kryeministri-ks.net/?page=1,9,6430