Spending for 500m euros higher, biggest road investments

Numerous investments in road infrastructure have been made for the construction of the highway connecting Kosovo with Albania, the highway connecting Kosovo with Macedonia, as well as the expansion of national roads and many other projects.

Economic Affairs expert Naim Gashi tells Radio Free Europe that the dedication of the budget for capital investments on highways and roads is wrong.

He stresses that even though roads and highways are necessary for a national economy, it would not take the entire budget to be spent in these sectors.

Capital investments are being misunderstood in Kosovo because mainly with capital investments, only roads are meant. Capital investments are not just roads, but there are all those projects that generate revenue and have economic effects over the long term. We're not against highways and roads, but what we're seeing is that capital investments are going solely to the construction of” roads, Gashi points out.

He adds that education, health and youth employment should be national priorities in the 2019 budget.

Kosovo also, Gashi adds, needs investments in the field of small and medium-sized enterprises, in subsidising young people with small projects and grants, investments in the tourism sector and agriculture.

I see the largestmablemics I see spending these tools in the justice sector, where tens of millions of euros are being spent and justice in Kosovo is actually bought with money. National priorities would have to be health, education, and employment of young people because the overwhelming part of young people are unemployed. Another problem is the agriculture sector where millions of euros are being invested and misappropriations are huge and the means are not going to farmers”, Gashi adds.

Health and education in Kosovo are consistently considered the two most underdeveloped and low budgeted sectors over the years. But, this time, these two sectors are placed on priority budget lines next year.

Under capital expenditures amounting to over 700m euros, according to Lulzim Rafuna, Finance Minister Bedri Hamza's adviser, will have projects to be developed in coherence with health and education reforms, resulting in infrastructure improvement in these two sectors.

The 2019 budget will address other needs of Kosovo citizens, but will address private sector development needs as well. Over a year, the Government of Kosovo has made many decisions on release from customs taxes, excise taxes, and ultimately reforms from the release of value-added tax, and all of these are incorporated in the 2019 budget, and despite all of these releases we have a budget greater than 20181818x1>, Rafuna points out.

Otherwise, under the Law for Public Finance Management, the Kosovo Government by the end of October must adopt the proposed budget to send to the Assembly, which must be approved by the end of December.

Kosovo's Customs and Tax Administration are two institutions on which the country's budget is being filled.