Kosovo is expecting better days. As time progresses, the diaspora becomes more and more interested in investing in Kosovo, in a climate which is moving towards improvement for both domestic investors, those from the diaspora but also for foreign investors.
Author: Bekim Brestovci
The Kosovo Diaspora is the product of a systematic violence exercised by the Serbian occupier who, in addition to political persecution of the Albanian people of Kosovo, systematically exercised economic repression with the sole purpose of impoverishing and bringing the Albanian people to their knees and taking control of all segments of life.
We only remember the mass departure of all Albanians after the strike organized by the independent union of Kosovo on September 3, 1990, when the vast majority of Albanian employees were forcibly removed from their employment, accompanied by the closure of the all public institutions such as schools, universities, media and everything else that breathed Albanian.
These were just some of the reasons for a large wave of outflows in the early 90's, towards the different countries of Europe but also the countries across the Atlantic.
The political but also the economic situation was deteriorating day by day in the country. The enemy in the face of police violence was pursuing a deliberate policy of impoverishment for the Albanian people of Kosovo, so our diaspora who were forcibly displaced from their centuries-old territories was being imposed a priority of their lives in host countries around the world.
Ensuring livelihood and economic well-being for their families in Kosovo automatically became a priority for every emigrant but not only that. The financing of the Kosovo government in exile, the creation of opportunities for the parallel education system, the material support of the liberation war in Kosovo and many other things which were directly related to the assistance and creation of opportunities for to face the plan of an ethnic cleansing that the state of Serbia had prepared for the Kosovo Albanians.
The Diaspora in all its phases, both before the war but also during and after the war with its material contribution became the bearer of the development processes of the country.
It was the Diaspora, which also made an indisputable contribution to the reconstruction of the country after the destruction it suffered in the last war. It is the diaspora that for years through remittances rank in the first place for bringing money to the country.
It is the diaspora that with the consumption during the stay in the homeland, ranks among the largest consumers in the country and especially in the summer season.
It is the members of the diaspora who for two and a half decades now are bringing their saved capital from the countries where they live in, thus becoming the main investors in Kosovo.
All this and many other unspoken things are a good indicator of the great importance that the diaspora had and still has in the economic development of the country.
Recently, various associations of Albanian businessmen in the diaspora, such as the Albanian-German Business Union, are bringing a new form of contribution for building production capacity in the country, for the transformation of the diaspora into consumers and for the implementation of joint stock companies.
Meetings of businesses from the diaspora with businesses from Kosovo are regular and all this is in order to create opportunities for the export of products by Kosovo firms to the European market. There are many contracts concluded for the supply of work clothes as well as for the supply of doors, windows and furniture but also for the provision of various services in the field of IT as well as in the field of accounting services.
The agreement signed between the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Diaspora and Strategic Investments and the Albanian-German Business Union, for the construction of an economic zone for businesses from the diaspora in an area of 40 hectares, speaks not only of a great inclination of the diaspora to invest in the countries of origin, but also speaks of a great willingness of Albanian businessmen from the diaspora to become even more powerful bearers of a process which leads to the economic development of the country.
The initiative of the Albanian-German Business Union, which is expected to materialize this year, for the creation of a joint stock company with a large number of shareholders, with the aim of joint investments in the food industry, livestock and mountain tourism, is also a good indicator of the importance and primacy that the diaspora is increasingly receiving in the economic development of Kosovo.
Kosovo is expecting better days. As time progresses, the diaspora becomes more and more interested in investing in Kosovo, in a climate which is moving towards improvement for both domestic investors, those from the diaspora but also for foreign investors.
Bekim Brestovci – is a lawyer by profession, he is an expert on international economic relations and Head of the office of the Albanian-German Business Union in Kosovo.
