Civil society praises the UN report as disturbing and unfavourable

While the report says Kosovo has the potential to attract foreign direct investment, but that potential is limited by failure to address serious structural issues, including limited regional and global economic integration, political instability and interference in the economy and corruption.

Researcher at “Democrey Plus”, Emir Abrashi says of Kosova Pres, that this government should focus on governing the law to eliminate regional and global economic restrictions, political interference in the economy and fighting corruption.

The U.S. Department of State's <x0 report was a small disadvantage in Kosovo, and it was disturbing because it had listed some things that are also known, such as the issue of corruption, the limited regional and global integration of Kosovo, the interference in the economy from politics... the steady supply of energy, the large non-formal spectrum, these are all the problems that we are aware of as a society and talk on a daily basis. The US State Department in the report stresses that Kosovo's economy depends largely on international assistance, as well as remittances. These are factors that also affect potential investors and foreign direct investments in Kosovo. Another point to the report is that there are about 5 percent economic downturns due to pandemic. So this normally forces Government to take additional steps”, Abrashi says.

While executive director of the Group for Political Jury Studies (GSJP), Arbresa Loja has stressed that fighting corruption is unfortunately not in the priority of either government.

According to Loxie, the lack of political will has contributed to a deadlock in the reforming process even in the justice system.

Even with this government, we have not seen the fight against corruption as a priority and take any concrete measures that would constitute a positive step in the fight against corruption. Moreover, we have degradation or impasses in many reform processes, including the justice system. We know that the property being a top priority has become a side activity by the government of Hoti in the 100 days of government. In general, we cannot expect one more report to be more positive for Kosovo in the future since over the past few months, but nothing concrete has been done to fight corruption. So there is no will of the political spectrum which leads with the ruling coalition to become such a”, says Loxha.

It has also said that no unnecessary spending has been eliminated, corrupt officials have not been sanctioned, but it has also had political influence on the justice system.

Even Florent Spahija from KDI thinks this report confirms that many civil society organisations have said for years about the situation that corruption is one of the causes that prohibit Kosovo's development.

Spahija emphasises that Kosovo has created a legal infrastructure, however, the implementation of laws remains a challenge.

“Corruption is one of the causes which prohibits Kosovo's development, actually continuing corruption in some spheres has caused Kosovo to have a deadlock every year even starting to score regrass. If we talk about foreign investment issues, so does this report, but many other reports also point to the lack of efficiency of courts in the fight against corruption, but also in the matter of treating substances from different companies. On the other hand, we also have the continuing problem with law enforcement, although it is said that in Kosovo there are good laws with European standards, but there is a void in implementing these laws.

Pandemia COVID-19, reportedly, is unlikely to lead to substantial permanent changes in investment policies in Kosovo.

Another problem in the report mentions high unemployment rates, officially 25.7 per cent in 2019, where unemployment rates for job seekers for the first time and women are noticeably higher than the official level.

The report notes that despite challenges, Kosovo has attracted a number of important investors, including several international firms and US francs. Some investors have been attracted by Kosovo's relatively new population, low labour costs, relative proximity to the EU market, said the report.

Civil society leaders have said that across the Balkans climate is at the same level as investment.