Wessel for the diaspora: Let's not just look at it as remittances.

During the address at the solemn hearing before diaspora representatives, Chief Parliamentary Veselin said the diaspora has always been a pillar of resistance and freedom of Kosovo.

Full speech to Wessel's topparliamentary: 

Honored MPs

Dear fellow countrymen, you have honoured us with your presence in the Kosovo Assembly.

Welcome to the Kosovo Assembly.

This is a special session, with which we are establishing a very useful practice for the country's institutions, for our citizens, especially our fellow countrymen in the diaspora.

The diaspora has always been a pillar of resistance and freedom of Kosovo.

From the National Renaissance to the days of the Kosovo liberation war, all major projects of our nation have begun among our diaspora.

Without the diaspora, Kosovo today wouldn't be where it is.

Today, it is a pillar of Kosovo's economy and state, so the state of Kosovo has great obligations to our countrymen, wherever they live and work around the world.

We have a diaspora that rarely any people in the world have. Her ties to her homeland are powerful, but today circumstances have changed. There are other needs: other challenges we have ahead, and that means new approaches.

The time has come for us to move beyond understanding the diaspora simply as the power of remittances for our families and as the category of homesickness. Today, our people in the diaspora are integrated into the most advanced trends of development and knowledge.

They are investors and managers of large companies. They're bank directors, successful entrepreneurs. They are intellectuals, experts and representatives of state institutions.

Their voices are heard all over the world, and their list of successes is long. That made us proud.

Our diaspora represents a great potential from which Kosovo can and should benefit. This can be achieved by building practical institutional communication with our people in the diaspora, with their ideas and their investment potential.

The Diaspora ministry, within the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, is doing a good job, but still insufficient. It is urgent that the diaspora' investment potential be placed as a top priority in Kosovo development strategies.

At the same time, at each institution in the country, we have to set the principle of open doors for projects and ideas coming from our people in the diaspora. For one thing, that means zero bureaucratic barriers to the diaspora.
Our final goal as a state of state is integration into the economic, political and military structures of the Western world, and it is a priority to the fact that our people in the diaspora live, act and create in the very conditions of this world.

They're integral parts of its development. Today, we have a great opportunity to hear some of their ideas in the Kosovo Assembly. Thank you.