KIE addresses the government: Public and private companies to be treated in the same way

The Council of European Investors (KIE), recalling the importance of private operators for job creation and business-making opportunities in Kosovo, expresses the Council members' concerns about the government's decision on the exemption from the scope of the Kosovo Telecom Public Procurement Law. The treatment of private operators should be equal to public operators, based on the rights and legal responsibilities belonging to them in providing services to citizens of the Republic of Kosovo.

The Public Procurement Law obliges contracting authorities to treat all economic operators equally in the market, and the same law forbids contracting authorities from performing any activity that reduces or further eliminates free competition. The Kosovo Competition Authority has already confirmed that these principles have been violated with the recent decision of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo.

The selective interpretation that is being done to Article 9 of the Public Procure Law is damaging economic operators in the country, causing financial and operational damage to the question of their existence. This climate created by Kosovo institutions is seen as an obstacle to free and fair functioning by the perspective of European investors, and as such this practice is dangerous to foreign direct investments in Kosovo.

The Council of European Investors (KIE) wants once again to remind the Government of the Republic of Kosovo of the importance of investments that have occurred by private operators in the current sector, the jobs created. And the long-term damage that can be done to the country by such a practice of treating economic operators. In the meantime, KIE considers vital to the country's economic development creating a favourable, supportive and favourable climate for direct investments so that citizens can benefit from the services created. We also want to stress that free competition not only represents one of the main pillars of the free market economy, but the same is a pre-priced standard with the competition law in our country, which has been established on the basis of European Union principles and standards in the area of competition. And these existing standards require respect in full.

The Council of European Investors (KIE) and all European and local investor members join the same requirements in the country for abolishing such a harmful decision for the economic future of the Republic of Kosovo.