Rafuna: Our diaspora is only investing in real estate, not a good signal.

Kosovo is filling up with shopping malls, hundreds of supermarkets and thousands of small brands, and the kind of business that they aim at only trade, and little of production.

Economic Odessa leader Lulzim Rafuna has explained why this is happening.

He has demanded that state institutions be more focused on helping increase production, which, according to him, would have rights to economic growth.

“As we help our producers: This must be done through subsidy, through fiscal policies. Free raw materials, or release from export taxes, or subsidising the interest rate of credit. There are certain types of policies -- whatever fiscal or administrative -- how can a product be helped in our country”, Rafuna told Periscope.

Total interview:

Periscope: Why are Kosovars investing in trade and not production?

Rafuna: Production is the lowest process compared to trade. Given that our market is beautifully limited in the number of consumers, most are commercially oriented. The strategic policy of the state should be to conceive more of production, and we have our product, and not be dependent on foreign products that are imported. That's for many reasons. First, production raised the rate of economic growth. Production creates a citizens' security because it is known what quality product is produced. The third is that the tools entered our market, better than getting out of here buying goods out.

Periscope: If we look for two years, almost all of the foreign investors have invested in real estate, and apart, two or three have been oriented into production. Why?

Rafuna: When we talk about foreign investments, the overwhelming majority, or 95 percent, in lawlessness are our own diaspora. It's a fact, and it's not a good signal, it's not a good strategy, but most of them are going to the Pacific. So I'm saying once again with full confidence that we should all work and the institutions of the country, including the different umbrellas and institutes, to help direct investments to production rather than lawlessness.

Periscope: Why have imports increased with Serbia, sʹpo has enough production, or do we just know how to support production businesses?

Rafuna: Production is growing. That's a good signal, that we're producing and we're starting to export. Of course, the trade balance remains very high, and the gap is very large between import and export, but I am stressing that we have to work much harder in order to improve the trade balance.

 Periscope: Are there dumping from other states to introduce their products to the Kosovo market?

Rafuna: I can't say that there's duping, but there are institutions, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, which has its own inspectorate, the team that has to explore the market, and it has to prove that a product is duping or not. Of course, we are witnesses that all countries, not only of the region but also of Europe, are subsidizing their product, whether in production or in expert production. We have to follow this policy in the underground to help our producers be competitors. The cost of production is within the fiscal policies of each country, so we have the chance to increase electricity, and this directly affects production costs. In this case, the state has to take action through fiscal policies or through subsidy, to help producers make the cost of production lower, and in this way the business resisted external competition.

Periscope: Should Kosovo products be protected, or should it be done?

Rafuna: Our products must be protected in two ways. The first by analyzing a country's product from where it comes from, at what cost it is producing there, and at what cost it is being sold. There is no logic that a product can be sold to our market at lower cost of production than it is produced. If that product is produced 2 euros, it cannot be sold here for 1 euro. So it protects itself by fighting anti-mping tax. The second is helping our products. This must be done through subsidy, through fiscal policies. Free raw materials, or release from export taxes, or subsidising the interest rate of credit. There are certain types of policies -- whether fiscal or administrative -- of how a product can be helped in our country.

Periscope: Are local products certified according to international standards, or do they need awareness and support in this regard?

Rafuna: No Kosovo product, which is sold on the domestic market, or on the foreign market, can be extracted without meeting the standards, one of them is certificates. For example, no product in any country in the region can be identified today, leaving it in EU states without being certified to standard ISO, or depending on the kind of standard that companies use. I am visiting producers in all of Kosovo every day, and it is to be admired what high standards they are producing, and now they are exporting, and in these two months it is higher than last year. This shows that Kosovo's product is required. /Periscopi/