4 minutes agodiaspora influence on Kosovo's economy during COVID-19 pandemic
Periskopi(6 years ago)
(6 years ago)At a time when Kosovo's economy is suffering decline as a result of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, the diaspora' role in Kosovo's economy continues to be enormous. In addition to the remittances, which have marked increases during the pandemic, the decline is noted in diaspora investments in real estate in Kosovo and purchases of household items. [...]
The GAP Institute says that what remains more influential for our economy is revenues from the expenditures the diaspora makes during visits to Kosovo, which have dropped significantly.
“Parademia, diaspora spending during visits to Kosovo was estimated to total more than 328m euros or 4.6% of BPV annually. While this year, the benefit of Kosovo's economy is expected to be small, about 0.55% to 1.83% of BPV. In addition to the fear of the Corona virus, the obstacle to the coming diaspora during the summer was the measures taken by Kosovo and other states for citizens visiting Kosovo. The drastic increase in the number of infected before the summer season prompted many countries in Europe to qualify Kosovo as one of the high risk countries to spread the infection. Cutting the diaspora's stance in Kosovo has obvious implications on Kosovo's economy and has negatively affected different sectors of the economy, starting with hotels, retail trade, derivatives, gastronomia, etc”, the GAP communiqué says.
According to GAP, in order to utilise the diaspora' financial potential, Kosovo must draft policies that promote re-enhancing remittances to investments and savings, creating investment platforms or placing government bonds for the diaspora; lowering the cost of remittances; and increasing programmes on the financial education of receptive families of remittances; The Kosovo government must finalise the diaspora registry, which should contain their fields of work, professional experience, and readiness for temporary relocation, etc; to create professional networks and plans with concrete purposes for the integration of diaspora into the economy; to improve business environment with emphasis on strengthening rule of law, intellectual property and transparency rights.
