All you need to know about the Kosovo Serbian Company Fair (Video)

Serbia's Panair in Kosovo. That is how the International General Pristina 2018, organised by Kosovo's Economic Oda in Pristina, is named after the fair as about seventy Serbian producers, and only one company from Albania, Periscopi reports.

This discrimination of Albanian companies and the favouring of Serbian producers at the fair has prompted numerous reactions, even some producers under the umbrella of the Kosovo Producers Association have boycotted the fair.

The lack of Albanian production companies at the fair, Gerjaliu says it is due to the impasse of co-operation between Kosovo and Albania.

There's a problem that we as the Economic Ode have been running for years, but all these efforts have encountered in deaf ears. It is a time when both Kosovo and Albania will overcome barriers and folk patriotism”, Gerjaliu has declared a pronouncement for Periscope.

Gerjaliu has truly described the declaration of the ambassador of the Republic of Albania in Kosovo, Kemeil Minxhozi, saying information about this fair has been open and open to all.

Ambassador Mingjole's statement is not being informed. The Chamber of Economics website has been clicked over 200,000 times, all information has been, so such an argument is to cover their failure, and not as a mistake not to inform the Kosovo Chamber of Economics” has been expressed Gerjaliu.

For the boycott of several Kosovo production companies, outgoing chairman of the Kosovo Economic Ode, Safet Gerjaliu has said such a move is the biggest damage Kosovo can do.

“We are witnesses that everything in Kosovo is forgiven, but success is not forgiven, and if they think that with such action they have contributed positively to Kosovo they have erred. Today when the Progress Report is unveiled and Kosovo's impasses are observed, and it is followed by such a boycott that it is the greatest damage Kosovo can do. And the question arises, can the fate of the Kosovo Chamber of Economics be detected by 9 companies that are part of the Association of Producers, when it is known that Oda has 16 thousand and 500 members. Co-operation, integration, partnership and, above all, Kosovo's” image is promoted in this hall, has ended Gerjaliu in a pronouncement for Periscope.

Safet Gerjaliu, head of Kosovo Economic Ode

But Trade and Industry Minister Bajram Hasani has said the responsibility for such small participation of companies from Albania is the organiser of this fair.

The responsibility for this organisation is the Kosovo Economic Oda, and I believe OEK's director has done his job, and has invited businesses over, because we have seen that there have been reactions from the Albanian state. But I believe that time invitations from Oda Economics have been sent, those who have expressed interest are part of this fair. This fair is organised under the auspices of the Kosovo Economic Ode. The fair can be said to have international character, that's good, because there are bridges of co-operation, and businesses are connected. We have also noted today that we are willing to help our businesses, removing the barriers they have both inside and abroad. I may be mistaken to speak this way, but I believe that the director of the Chamber of Commerce has long submitted invitations to Albanian companies. I don't know why their participation is too small, I don't know, I can't say anything”, has been expressed by Minister Hasani for Periscope.

He has said that the fact that Serbia is one of the biggest importers in Kosovo could be the trigger of a greater interest by Serbian companies in participating in the fair.

Hasan has even said they are working on the protection of local producers, following a visit he made to a packed fair with Serbian companies that compete daily and more local companies.

Perhaps this too makes the interest of Serbian companies larger. But we are witnessing every day, and those goods that undermine competition on the Kosovo market, we will take safeguard clauses where we see the country's production of” damaged, the minister Hasani has declared in a proposal for Periscope.

Minister of Trade and Industry Bajram Hasani

Serbia's Panair in Kosovo has thus named this organisation of the Kosovo Economic House, the head of the Kosovar Producer Club, Astrit Panja, which has the bar of invitation for local producers to boycott this organisation.

“This international fair, but it is Serbia's fair in Kosovo. Taking into account the number of participants, today we have more Serbian companies participating than in Kosovo, Albania's, we are not even discussing it or other countries, because it is a very small number”, Panja has stated in a proposal for Periscope.

Panja has stressed the fact that Serbia works more and more every day for blocking and ignoring the state of Kosovo, while in Kosovo's capital, over 70 Serbian producers are promoted.

“Taking into account that we are facing a state that in every form blocks the state of Kosovo, and in every form tries to ignore the existence of Kosovo, and in every form works in the desolating of the state of Kosovo. Serbia's Foreign Minister on the 10th anniversary of Kosovo Independence says he is working to remove recognitions from Kosovo, and if that is politics, then we also remember the case of Serbia's handball team that refused to play with the Kosovo team, even though it accepts the sentence except from international competitions. While we are saying, let's do business with Serbia” it is expressed.

According to him, this high turnout of Serbian companies is unreasonable, when it is known that Serbia has closed the door to Kosovo companies and producers.

This makes no sense when we know that Kosovo producers do not have access to Serbia's market, and are blocked in any way by Serbia. And we open the doors to Serbia, which with its companies participating in the Pristina Fair, with an object built with taxpayers' money” says Panja.

Panja has also received an answer to the head of the Kosovo Economic Ode, Safet Gerjaliu, who has called them pseudopatriot, following the Association of Producers' request for boycotting this fair.

And the chairman of the Chamber of Economics comes out and says we're the Persian-patriot. Not we are co-operating with Serbia, but on equal grounds. We have invited our members to the boycott, which is the 17 largest companies in Kosovo with over 15 thousand employees. None of them attend the fair. There are many other production companies that do not participate, because it is not logical to give such a large space to Serbian companies in Kosovo”, Panja has declared in a premonition for Periscope.

He has said he should insist that Serbia's market be opened for Kosovo products otherwise, even Kosovo should return with the same currency to Serbia.

Kosovo Producers Club Director Astrit Panja

Such high turnout of Serbian companies at today's fair, the head of the Kosovo Business Alliance, Agim Sahini, is calling it an effort for personal gain or even the organisers themselves.

In a proposal for Periscope, Sahin has said the responsibility for this must be sought by the organiser of this fair.

“For the participation of Serbian companies in Panair must seek responsibility from the organiser, who has been more focused on bringing companies from Serbia than from Albania, and this is behind success. The GDP deals with promotion of local products, but there are others who see only their own personal benefit and organisation, without seeing national criteria, even violating them, and that is extremely harmful to the reports of Kosovo-Albania. This fair is commercial, and here it has come to a business, that each organization has its right to organise in forms as they want” has said Sahin in a premonition to Periscope.

He has shown that in the organisation that was made by the organisation he runs, the participation of production companies from Albania has been very high.

But it would have been better to be the focus of national companies, to take more part in this organisation, as we have organised in the fall of last year, where more than 70 companies from Albania have participated in Kosovo Business Week, and this is one issue of always the way organisers are oriented, to drop businesses from which country. We as the UN have always promoted Albanian businesses and this has always succeeded. But there are others who, on commercial grounds, organise these international and international fairs, also participating in other non-Albanian companies”, he says.

Even Sahin has described this fair, organised by the Kosovo Economic Oda, as being the guardian of foreign companies.

According to him, the fact that Serbia has about 400m euros of imports in Kosovo, the tone that Serbian companies do not need to promote in Kosovo at all.

Serbia's “Serbia over 400 million has imports in Kosovo, and it doesn't support the event, it has the Kosovo market, much more than the market in other countries. Kosovo's national strategy is missing, but also Albania's”, he has said of Periscopi.

Sahin says such high turnout of Serbian producers may have been prompted by major Kosovo companies, which deal exclusively with importing Serbian products to Kosovo.

“We have many Kosovo companies which exclusively deal with the sale of Serbia's products, and this directly affects the arrival of these companies coming to Kosovo, so all this organisation is influenced by traders who are related to Serbia. This even helps President Vuciq's statements, which claim that trade exchanges towards Kosovo, reach up to 1 billion euros by 2020, and this is a good chance, for them to be promoted to Kosovo, and to reach those goals”, has ended Sahini for Periscope.

Kosovo Alliance of Business Chairman Agim Sahini

And the only representative of the Albanian company who was participating in this fair at a pronomination for Periscope has shown that despite the fact that they are the only company in the Pristina International Fair 2018, they are very proud to be participating, but at the same time desperate with that fact.

We're very proud to be attending first. However, I would like the number of companies from Albania to be the largest” has declared Periscope, the company's representative “Dajti) from Albania.

“I don't know, maybe Kosovo has appreciated better that companies from Serbia take part in the fair than by Albania” have been expressed for Periscope.

Besides the fact that the company “Dajti” was the only company from Albania at this fair, the place where this company was reserved to introduce its honey products was at a corner of an object several thousand square meters.

“Even our position shows that we have been left out somehow. We from Albania say, some of the mothers, some of the stepmothers, and it looks like we've been decided by stepmothers, and they left us as stepchildren”, the company's representative, has declared.

And the central position given to Serbian companies at the fair, he says it made them much superior compared to other production companies at the fair.

He has said this approach of organising this fair should be changed, and more done for Albania as well.

The very high turnout of Serbian companies at the fair is seen as a huge competition, even the owner of the Kosovo company V D-Technodril.

The Serbian companies are known to be competing in Kosovo because there are many Serbian products sold in Kosovo. It was more necessary that we promised me something for them than for us. It's competition in all aspects” he declared.

Currently, the Republic of Serbia is one of the countries from which Kosovo imports the most, while trade co-operation between Kosovo and Albania continues to stall even despite the fact that both countries' governments hold meetings and prove easing trade barriers. /Periscopi/