Coronavirus: Kosovo has enough state food reserves

In addition to European countries, some of the countries in the region, including Albania, Northern Macedonia and Serbia, have already confirmed the first cases of injections by the new choreography. In Kosovo, so far there have been dozens of suspected cases with this virus, but none of them have proved positive.

By contrast, the Republic of Kosovo has begun collecting state reserves since 2012, which could be exploited in the event of major natural disasters. But their amount is considered insufficient for the needs of the population, in the event of an eventual epidemic by the new virus, says Musa Limani, professor of economy.

The “E knows there is not enough reserves, so the current government must correct the previous government and buy, respectively, to provide necessary reserves, not just for ten days, but for months or a year, due to the avoidance of corruption. For this, the government is legally binding”, Limani says.

If it comes to the isolation of a greater number of citizens, the government is obliged to supply material goods, necessary for existence, such as flour, sugar, salt, oil and other things”, he says.

In Kosovo in 2010, the Law on State Reserves has been adopted, under which state reserves of goods are created to operate to protect the population, the economy in case of market disorder, the country's defence in situations of emergency, civil emergency situations and many similar cases.

State goods reserves are provided on the basis of the medium-term strategic plan, while managed by the Department of State stock goods, within the framework of the Ministry of Economy, Employment, Trade, Industry, Strategic Investments and Enterprises.

In an answer to Radio Free Europe officials of this ministry have said that based on the 2019-2021 Strategic Plan, the budget is significant, according to the planning of the annual programme.

The strategic “Plani and the annual programme, as well as the location of state reserves of goods, with the Law for State Reserves, is considered state secret. We consider that in the event of request for possible emergency intervention the State stocking Department of goods will come to the aid of the entire population in the area where intervention is required. The state reserve has: agro-food goods, wheat, oil, essential drugs etc.”, said in response.

The department is constantly increasing the stock with state reserve products both in quantity and in types of products, while in terms of increased needs they are welcome”, the answer to this ministry's information office is highlighted.

Based on the medium-term strategic plan and the annual programme of state goods reserves for 2016 to 2018, the pre-present state reserves were mainly food products. In this state of emergency, the provision of wheat (from which flour is obtained) would take place in 20 days for all the population, sugar for 15 days for 20,000 inhabitants, while oil and derivatives were reserved for three days of total annual import.

Meanwhile, other non - food items were then planned for the needs of 20 thousand inhabitants. Under this plan, the list of state reserve products contained a total of 51 products, of which 14 were agri-food and 37 non-food products, mainly sanitation.

The chairman of the Kosovo Economic Ode, Berat Rukiqi, in a proposal for Radio Free Europe, has said that increasing the amount of state reserves should be one of the measures of the Kosovo Security Council.

Subsequently for basic articles that need to be increased. We have seen this in other countries. It is a matter of days when we are expected to face the first cases of coronary in Kosovo. The outbreak of the virus in Europe has prompted drastic measures, in most European countries, including border closure opportunities, while Kosovo is highly dependent on imports. In the event of any panic at a local or wider level, Kosovo has flour reserves that can be emptied, within a short period of”, Rukiqi wrote.

And Professor Musa Limani stresses that seeing safeguard clauses in other countries of Europe and the region as well as the possibility of introducing persons to quarantine, the Kosovo government urgently must be ready for the issue.

The government must take responsibility if it comes to quarantine of a certain number of the population and cannot respond with necessary reserves for existence”, he points out.

For this year it has not yet been made public how many means have been earmarked for state reserves, as the draft budget law for 2020 -- which is envisioned to be over 2.3 billion euros -- on Tuesday has been approved by the Government of Kosovo, but has not yet been adopted in the Kosovo Assembly. / REL