an hour agoAustria ready to help Kosovo with economic recovery, visa liberalisation
Periskopi(5 years ago)
(5 years ago)Austria's Ambassador Christoph Weidtinger said they are committed to assisting Kosovo in economic recovery, stressing that a business fair will be organised over the next year by this Embassy to report closely to Austrian companies with opportunities to invest in Kosovo. Weidinger expressing happiness that Austria is [...]
Weidinger expressing happiness that Austria is the fourth most investment state in the country, estimates Austrian companies see Kosovo as a strategic country.
Well, I can certainly say that bilateral relations between the two countries have been very close. We have supported from the beginning Kosovo's independence, also Kosovo's path towards membership in the European Union, and you know that even in 1999, when it was not possible for Kosovars to study in Albania, we were able to study smoothly in Austria. Austria is now the fourth largest investor in Kosovo, and we are working further to strengthen our economic relations and help our economy and businesses get out of Ovidius' pandemic, we are planning as part of our business refocusing, in the coming spring to organise in Pristina a major business event where Austrian companies will come from future-oriented areas and green technology will certainly be one of them. Coming to Kosovo and meeting with companies and seeing future opportunities to invest here in Kosovo, we look forward to this event that will serve the economies of both countries”.
Because Austria is the fourth largest investor here, also what I've seen so far is a huge interest by Austrian companies to invest. We're working to bring more companies here, but there's a lot of interest in Austrian companies and it's very good to see that Austria is the fourth largest investor here at”.
Austria is one of the countries that has fully recovered economically from pandemic. Weidinger says he has done this by taking quick measures to protect businesses and workers.
“I can only say what Austria did since the beginning of the pandemic, Austria took very quick measures to help businesses or prevent business bankruptcy, but also to prevent people from being unemployed. It's keeping people employed and money is used to help businesses. And I just saw the figures this week that the unemployment rate is lower now than before pandemic. It's really nice to see this kind of positive statistics”.
On the other hand, he stressed that the Austrian state has submitted support for visa liberalisation to Kosovo on the governing programme, adding that he hopes this will happen soon.
“In Austria's government programme, there is a separate paragraph for Kosovo where Austria reportedly supports visa liberalisation for Kosovo. You know we have it in our government program that we support. We very much hope that it will soon happen”.
He also confirmed that Austria will continue to support Kosovo youth in their education through various programmes.
“Well Austria is now the largest donor in the field of education. Through the ADA Development Agency we have very important projects, one of them is Hera+, I hope it will soon be approved by the Assembly of Kosovo in order to implement as soon as possible. It is a project that is ahead of university quality standards to make them compatible with EU universities. High education has been a priority for us in the last 20 years, so we have a big project with the EU called A. LED, which is the alignment of education with labour market needs, so they need to sync to fit the labour market. We're also the biggest donor for U's youth. NICEF in Kosovo”. / EO/
