Swiss newspaper: Without Switzerland's Kosovars, there is almost nothing in the new country

This is the first in a series of articles on Kosovo and from Kosovo that this newspaper and portal '%blic. They will publish in a week, accompanied by numerous films and photographs. The idea is to give a mirror on how much the link to Kosovo's daily living Swiss affects or determines.

Through the streets of Kosovo, Switzerland is present everywhere. Locals advertise the Swiss cross, ranging from massage studios to gun stores. Roads during the holiday season are packed with expensive automobiles with Swiss labels. Kosovars living abroad are called “Schatz” (thesar) and that with a strong reason, as the Kosovo diaspora in Switzerland is of vital importance to Kosovo.

About 200 thousand Kosovars live in Switzerland, which is 10 percent of the entire Kosovo population. Each year they send about 175 million francs to Kosovo, according to official data. While 65 million francs flow there a year from Swiss firms.

The Swiss “Investors make up our most important source of direct investment”, they say at the Kosovar Embassy in Bern.

200 firms with Swiss owners have been deployed in Kosovo since 2003. Last year Switzerland has imported goods worth 17 million francs from Kosovo, which is 50 times more than ten years ago. In particular are agricultural products, which already make up a quarter of Kosovo's export to Switzerland. Especially in products such as raisins and raisins, investors benefit from low wages in Kosovo, writes more brock.

Joachim Lichtenhhn from Winterthur and Besnik Etemi from Zurich are engaged in this very field, they produce dried fruits in Soeva of Ferizaj for the Swiss market.

My son Saliu (93 year old) is the owner of land here”, explains Etemi in a film insert reflecting his business and his partner Joachim Lichtenhan.

While Armend Malazog with its thick juices “Smoothies”, it's even reached COOP's windows.

The other strong attitude of Kosovars is that many speak German. That's why the center call here grows like mushrooms after rain. The most popular one is the one named "Baruti" and is founded by second-generation Kosovo youth from Switzerland. Already in Baruti, over 200 workers work as the trend moves toward growth. And the account is simple: Baruti pays his employees out of 500 euros a month -- a big salary for the very low and low circumstances, convenient to lawmakers from Switzerland”, writes the Swiss newspaper.

Further in the article is the money that “schatzi” pours into Kosovo during holidays. For every summer, Kosovo is flooded with a real wave from Switzerland. Kosovo authorities say there are about 100,000 people from Switzerland visiting Kosovo each year. While according to airline companies, this figure should be even higher. Edelweis makes 670 flights to Pristina and vice versa. Easys even 1001 flights, and these together estimate 150 thousand passengers.