RTK: You have just signed the Free Trade Agreement with the EFTA countries. How do you assess the signing of such an Agreement, and how will it affect Kosovo?
Prime Minister Kurti: The Republic of Kosovo has just signed an Agreement with the EFTA countries, and this is a very happy and historical day for our country, for our citizens, and especially for our entrepreneurs who will be exporting. The EFTA countries are four: Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. We have negotiated for a long time and finally concluded the agreement, which was signed by the Minister of Industry, Entrepreneurship and Trade, Ms. Rozeta Hajdari.
She has negotiated very hard and wisely and has managed and enabled Kosovo to be the only country in our region that has signed an agreement with EFTA countries that includes not only trade in goods but also trade in services.
Kosovo’s exports have doubled in the last four years, so with this agreement, we see a chance for further growth in exports, which as is known are dominated by wood and metal processing, then by textiles and leather, beverages and food, and especially by the Information and Communication Technology sector where we have about 1,500 very successful companies in Kosovo. Over 80 percent of their products are for export and they have about 1,500 software engineers and developers who are already gaining new markets.
I thank Minister Rozeta Hajdari, I thank the EFTA member states, the EFTA Secretariat, who have come to Davos today, within the framework of the World Economic Forum, to sign this historic agreement for the economy and trade of our country, here, in the Swiss House.
And from the “Swiss House” we will now continue to the “Kosovo House” with another festive ceremony where we have invited many guests to join our joy.
RTK: How do you generally evaluate the participation and progress in the Davos Economic Forum, but also that for the first time Kosovo has its own house in which its offer is presented?
Prime Minister Kurti: We were a little stressed because we have always participated in ceremonies organized by other countries in their houses, this is the first time that in Davos, Kosovo has its own house and there is a huge amount of technical, logistical, organizational, and diplomatic work that needs to be done in order for this to be successful and hundreds of people have worked for this day, both from our private sector and from our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, from our Embassy here in the Swiss Confederation, to organize panels, meetings, and parties at the “House of Kosovo”.
During my stay, I met with the Prime Minister of Lithuania and with a number of heads of state, whether presidents or prime ministers, at various events here. Of course, the highlight of our entire stay here was precisely the signing of the Agreement with the EFTA countries, which I believe is another step for Kosovo towards further integration on our continent.
These four countries are not members of the European Union, but they are in Europe, just like Kosovo, and in the coming months and years we will work with everything we know and can to open up new opportunities for our entrepreneurs to export their products, because it is clear that Kosovo, with 1.6 million inhabitants and 1 million of its citizens in the diaspora, needs new markets for exports that need to increase and for the trade deficit that needs to be reduced.
RTK: You also had meetings with various investors within the “House of Kosovo”. You invited them to invest in Kosovo. How did these meetings go and was there any feedback from them?
Prime Minister Kurti: We had meetings with investors in the energy sector and beyond. I emphasize energy because last year we had a successful conclusion of the public auction for the solar park in Kramovik, Rahovec, where a Swiss-German-Kosovar company won in the end with full transparency in the competition with consortia from the United States of America, France, Egypt and Turkey. And now we also have the auction for the next park, this time of energy produced by wind turbines, also 100 megawatts, and we are interested in as many consortia from the democratic West as possible participating in Kosovo.
Our goal is to have energy at affordable prices, energy with a stable supply and to increase the quality and quantity of the workforce in Kosovo.
We are telling investors that in Kosovo, there is no customs duty on production machinery, no customs duty on raw materials, no tax on corporate dividends and also no tax on exports, in parallel with the fact that the workforce is relatively cheap, the rents of facilities are relatively cheap and electricity is the cheapest in Europe at only 7.4 euro cents per kilowatt/hour, while the energy of our youth together with its talent and being multilingual is a great advantage for all those who wish to invest in Kosovo.
RTK: Kosovo is among 25 countries, only 25 countries in the world that have their own houses in Davos. Will this be the case every year?
Prime Minister Kurti: Our goal is for the “House of Kosovo” to be in mid-January every year here in Davos and for us to have as many guests and friends as possible.
Last modified: January 23, 2025