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The signing of the agreement between the Government of Kosovo and the American company Contour Global for the construction of the “New Kosovo thermal power plant” was said to secure energy independence for the country.

After the agreement was signed, Economic Development Minister Valdrin Luka said the signing of the commercial agreement for the construction of the “New Kosovo thermal power plant”, in addition to ensuring the country's energy independence, would also ensure an improved air quality in Kosovo.

This project also has some very specific criteria as it is, for example, to use super critical technology, which is technology that guarantees that in many years it will be very suitable for our environment, especially the fact that we will close Kosovo A with the beginning of this project. This project envisions that in addition to providing energy independence, it will also guarantee us the improvement of air, especially in our region of Pristina. Also, besides energy security it is important to understand economic impact, it is a project that has 1.3 billion euros in investments and will occur over a period of four years. So, since 2019 I believe that with this project alone, those forecasts that gross domestic products or GDP will exceed the amount of 5 or 6 per cent, because it normally has a huge impact even on the entry of foreign investments to Kosovo”, he said.

During the time of construction, Ninnistra Luka said that about 10,000 people will be employed, and some 500 people will be employed individually during the operation.

He announced that soon the contract will be made public and will be available to all.

Meanwhile, the company's Executive Director “Counter Global”, Joseph Brandt, said the construction of the plant would be done with a super critical technology.

We think the technology used here is super critical, it's reliable and a technology witnessed for the line in thermal power plants around the world. There have been examples of building these thermal power plants and they have been difficult to execute in practice, so we think that this super criticism in line with the newly drafted EU legislation will be supported with the latest technology. I think just who wants to see this project agrees with this, and this is a unique case where you have a content reduction, due to the super critical thermal power plant, compared to the thermal power plant. If you look at all of this together, you'll realize that this is the right technology for this project, but I ask you to investigate the shades of different technologies”, Brandt said.

As for whether there will be difficulties in mobilising capital financed for financing construction, Brandt said he sees no difficulties in financing the project, even he said it is a major project and will be attractive to the construction industry.

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, Parliament Speaker Kadri Veselini, Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, US Ambassador Greg Delawie and representative of the Countur Global Joseph Brandt company have attended the signing ceremony.