Foreign investments halved in Kosovo, cause political instability, corruption

Investments are almost halved, and according to economic connoisseurs, due to corruption and the political situation in the country.

Council of European Investors Executive Director Emrush Ujkan tells Kosovo that it is disturbing that corruption has affected the decline of foreign investments in Kosovo and that has hampered economic development.

That's why Wolfan has asked the new government to work hard to improve the business climate.

The “is now a general conclusion in our society that there is corruption in our country regardless of whether it is high-level or less, but there is a presence of this phenomenon, then non-defeit corruption affects the issue or the foreign investment climate in our country. That's something that doesn't need to be more relaxed, that's a fact. Thus, the presence of corruption in one society as it does all other aspects of the world inexorably harms economic development and, therefore, foreign investment”, Ujcan points out.

According to Wolfan, there is an apparent decline in foreign investment and stagnation, which he says should be handled with high priority by relevant institutions.

And why there is a decline, it's very obvious, and there's no dilemma or said otherwise there were no new investors coming. And so we've recorded in some form and it's really a concern that the entire government and public bodies of this country should be treated with a very high priority of”, he says.

The head of the Council of European Investors has called on the new Government to implement investment-related laws, as well as intervention and improvement in the business climate.

The new government must deal more specifically with implementing laws related to doing business in our country, where it needs to intervene and improve this climate. And that's how we can best move”, Wolfan points out.

There have been cases that some investors have even left Kosovo for various causes involving corruption and bribery.

On the other hand, according to the CEC Foreign Direct Investment (IHD) in Kosovo in 2020 there were investments of 321.7m euros, while in 2019 there were 254.6m euros, or 67m less.

Despite the positive FDI trend in 2019 (a small increase) compared to the year 2018, according to data from the Central Bank of Kosovo, IHD suffered significant declines during 2018 and 2017, leaving Kosovo as a non-impressive country for foreign investment, and especially away from attracting investments from corporations and major global brands.