Over 111m euros made cash from Kosovo for five months

These statistics exceed the amount of foreign investments that have been invested this year in the country.

In the January-May 2018 period, 76m euros of foreign investment have come to Kosovo, but more than 111m euros have come up from Kosovo. On average, every month from our country, more than 22m euros are issued cash.

Economic experts describe these figures as disturbing, so they say rapid measures should be taken, Olgraph writes.

Kosovo Central Bank spokesman (BQK), Kuqim Ahmeti, has indicated to Telegrafi that foreign investments in the first five months of 2018 total 76m euros. “Foreign Direct Investments for January-May 2018 are 76.0 million”, Ahmeti said.

Investors from Germany, Switzerland and Austria have invested mostly in Kosovo during this period.

But concern in addition to the low volume of investments remains for Kosovo even export of cash ready. According to BQC statistics, this figure is
far bigger than the money invested in our country.

“Vlera of the means that have emerged from Kosovo in the category of foreign direct investments in January-May 2018 are 111.6m euros”, said BEC spokesman Kutje Ahmeti, writes Telegrafi.

But the lack of investments, as well as the removal of money abroad by economic connoisseurs, see it as a problem that comes from corruption, not rule of law, as well as without security to invest.

The Executive Director of the American Chamber of Economics in Kosovo (OEAK), Arian Zeka, has told Telegrafi that the numbers of exiting money abroad are disturbing.

According to him, institutions must take quick measures. The Kosovo Central Bank report is quite disturbing in terms of foreign direct investment trends. On the one hand, the overall value of foreign inflow investments is markedly lower compared to the previous year, while on the other hand the emerging flow of foreign investment is much higher compared to the same period in 2017, with great impact on the balance of foreign investments for this period”, he said.

Zeka stresses that there are sectors that have performed with positive values. Negative foreign investment values are also noted in the agriculture and industry sectors. But in the financial services category, we continue to have positive values of foreign direct investment, given the impact this sector has had on the country's economic development”, Arian Zeka stressed.

For a country like Kosovo, according to the Executive Director of the American Chamber of Economics, it requires a more aggressive commitment to promote investment opportunities.

“requires that through the use of legal mechanisms approved in recent years, such as the Strategic Investment Law, but also new fiscal measures that make our country more attractive. And in addition to improving the bid and boosting promotion, it is necessary for the country to demonstrate political stability, so that perceived political risk, as an important factor of investments, is as small as”, Zeka said.

Economy expert Naim Gashi, on the other hand, told Telegraphy that Kosovo's suffering from lack of foreign investment is due to political and institutional instability, which has been going on for several years now.

“is a range of reasons that we have such low investment rates. The tense situation in the north and continuing dialogue with Serbia, where it dominates a hostile discours, causes fear in foreign investors”, he said.

Gashi has said that the fragility of functioning of the justice system is an obstacle to foreign investment. “After them comes corruption, the bureaucracy of public administration at the local and central level, the irregular supply of electricity, etc.”, has declared Naim Gashi economy expert.