Minister Krasniqi says 30 thousand citizens did not lose jobs as a cause of pandemic

Thus has Minister of Trade and Industry Vesel Krasniqi said in an interview for KosovaPress, stressing that pandemics to businesses and economic development in the Republic of Kosovo have had a huge impact.

Although the state still does not have official figures for the number of citizens who have lost jobs because of the pandemic, Minister Krasniqi claims that the pandemic has influenced the reduction of employment in businesses, but according to him, there are not 30,000 people as reported by trade unions and the business community.

He is claiming that this figure is lower for those who lost their jobs in the pandemic.

I consider business to be damaged, of course, working classes, but still with the Law on Economic Recovery, those who have temporarily left and who will rely on this law... We expect research at the end of the year, of course, more accurate statistics. There are 30,000, we consider that the number is smaller for the fact that temporary passive numbers of workers. Many of the businesses have been doing so temporarily because of the measures they have taken because of the” deadline, he says.

In addition, Minister Krasniqi has said the decline in trade exchanges at the beginning of the pandemic has been 100 per cent, while in the second part 20 per cent.

The “has really been a difficult year for our country, for our economy, for Kosovo businesses, but also for the whole world because of the Devid-19 pandemic. Like the Republic of Kosovo, our businesses have certainly had difficulties, especially in the first part of the year after that total closure. This has directly affected our country's economic development. At that time all exports that our production businesses with their products have already had were halted, while many of them have been forced to break contracts with other countries”, he points out.

Minister Krasniqi says the MTI through the Law on Economic Recovery will allocate 10.5m euros to businesses, as he said there are three measures that will be implemented by MTI, grant support for manufacturing businesses with machinery, technology and supply of ISO European standards certificates.

Now, even though we have recently adopted the Law for Economic Recovery to Kosovo, and through this law, there are certainly a host of measures which will directly support the working class, but this certainly does not meet the compensation of the damage I have done to the country's economy, which accounts for about 5-7 per cent. Of course, we'll have statistics at the end of the year for economic growth reductions. We have 10.4m euros like MTI that will go directly to businesses. Also, the Law on Economic Regainment of Money and Other Supporting Activity -- from VAT reduction 18 per cent to 8 per cent -- then there are interest reduction loans, which will directly support business. We hope that it will affect how little it takes to support business”, he points out.

In addition, the MTI next year will also support women in grant entrepreneurship.

As far as business closures are concerned, Krasniqi has said that they are constantly forwarding statistics through the census Agency and, as he says, is not to the extent reported in the media.

He admits that there is a decrease, of course, of business inactivity, this in small businesses, but what is mostly damaged is gastronom activity.

The minister has further said that the number of workers compared to the next years has a decrease but that they expect as Government to compensate through the Law for economic recovery.