Prime Minister of Republic of Kosovo, Isa Mustafa, held a press conference on Wednesday where he presented the report of the 100 day report of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo.
Find the full text of Prime Minister Mustafa in conference.
Dear representatives of the media,
Today at the meeting of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo we discussed about our hundred day work and have approved the report of this work.
Allow me to tell you that our fundamental goal has been building good, effective and accountable governance, and we believe that such an approach we have managed to strengthen the trust of citizens and our partners, that Kosovo is a state which has its own vitality and can be built as a new and independent state.
So, the goal is that through the implementation of the program to build a democratic Kosovo, a Kosovo of the rule of law, where the rights of every human being without distinction are respected, and a government that promotes economic development, which promotes social welfare and market economy.
However, it should also be noted that we have been mandated in a very serious condition which was characterized primarily by the gap of non-establishment of institutions for six months, with the beginning of the strike of employees of education, health and judges. With budget problem which did not meet all the requirements and needs and we had to make certain contractions of funding from many fields. With protests organized by the opposition in several cities of Kosovo and in Pristina as well, which has escalated into violent protests, dealing with the possibility of “Trepca” to enter in liquidation and striking miners, and the flow of migration the first two months of this year, which has remained inexplicable in terms of the factors that have caused it but also, which is sponsored and supported by organized crime, by the fraudulent and the profiteers, which was understood now because about 80 of them have been arrested that have been associated with this organization of migration of our citizens.
We are originally committed to budgetary stability as a prerequisite for economic stability of our country, we managed to come to an agreement with union representatives to treat their potential requirements when the budgetary conditions allow that. But also we consider that there is no example that we know of in the region and in democratic countries that a government is not given any opportunity to consolidate to start work as it is not given to us from the beginning of the work, but we can to say that we have managed to cope with this, we have managed to stabilize the space in which we work and to cope with demand, with many problems that other governments have not been faced with before us.
I must emphasize that the violent protests that happened in Kosovo have been very harmful for the citizens of Kosovo, but have been very harmful both for the name and authority of Kosovo abroad, and that we, in no case, should allow our police, our people to be attacked with rocks and rocks serve as instruments for resolving political incompatibilities and to come to power.
But, with all these we consider that we have made it. We managed to promote a vision of Kosovo as an independent state, as a democratic state and a state which should be integrated into Euro-Atlantic structures and to maintain permanent friendship with the United States of America and also as a state which must ensure full independence of the legislative, judiciary and executive so that these three pillars of government to do their job properly.
We, during these three months, hundred days have adopted many important documents such as Government Program for four years and Implementation Plan of the Government Programme, have approved the Work Plan of the Government and we have also approved the National Programme for Economic Reforms as program which was done for the domestic needs but also the reforms which we have to do as structural reforms towards European Union requirements.
In the field of economics we have made substantial changes to the tax system and we believe that these changes will yield results in economic development, we changed the Value Added Tax, we changed the Profit Tax, Income Tax of Corporate and Tax for Personal Income. We made the tax exemption for import of machinery which serves for production and investment in production. We have also made changes in administrative guidelines for fiscal electronic devices, and this will enable the application of fiscal cash registers that stimulates businesses to equip with fiscal cash registers and also allows customers the return of VAT, which they pay. We also agreed and have established the group that will prepare the law for debt forgiveness until 31 December 2008, with what we will contribute to clean completely accounts and also citizens and businesses to be freed from charges that they could not do, and we have managed to close the fiscal year 2014 on regular basis and also to approve the budget within defined period by law.
We are working in an effective and transparent management of public finances. We have organized the transfer of divisions of salaries from the Ministry of Public Administration to the Ministry of Finance, in order to make a better a concentration and management of this and also with the approval of the national program for economic reform, we have summarized all structural reforms of the Government, based on sustainable macroeconomic framework and this is a document, which is being coordinated with the European Union.
We also approved the program of state debt, which we defined the outline of this debt and we are collaborating with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund for this, and have taken the decision in the Government for two significant borrowings from the World Bank, one for the financing of health reform and the other on energy efficiency.
We changed and approved the administrative instruction on the implementation of central procurement procedures. Now we are working on electronic procurement, which will be applied this year and also are working on the concentration of the procurement system in one agency, in order not to be all ministries and all government bodies dealing with procurement.
We organized debates with businesses, so that economic policies generate from business requirements and we have also organized and established a group in the Government, which will provide the basic concept of forming a development fund, through which we will support small and medium businesses especially youth and women businesses and will also determine the status and scope of the fund.
We held a joint meeting of the two governments, the Government of the Republic of Kosovo and the Government of Albania, in which we have signed 11 agreements and we have given a statement concerning cross-border cooperation of both governments and we are preparing and are ready to hold a meeting of the Government of Kosovo and the Government of Macedonia, in which we will also sign for facilitating cooperation between the governments in many areas.
We have reached agreement for Justice in Brussels and we begin implementing the laying of power respectively the laws of the Republic of Kosovo in all its territory.
We managed to save “Trepca” from bankruptcy thanks to the offer that has made the Government of the Republic of Kosovo in Parliament with a legal solution based on the will that have shown majority of the members of the Assembly of Kosovo.
We have made all preparations to sign a Stabilisation and Association Agreement and we believe that it will be signed in the middle of this year and we also conducted many of preparations for meeting the technical criteria for visa liberalization and the promise was given to us by high Representative of the European Union Ms Mogherini, that we will have the political will of them when we meet all technical requirements.
We have prepared Law on levelling of wages, through which we will create conditions that, everyone to be paid according to the work that does in the institutions of Republic of Kosovo and this will be a very important step in the reform of public administration.
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has made preparations of the program to support farmers.
The drafting of preventive strategy against extremism and radicalism was developed and we managed to propose the Assembly the Law on prevention of people on going and joining in external conflicts, which during this period has been approved by the Assembly of Republic of Kosovo.
In the field of justice are made all the preparations for drafting the Civil Code, which is one of many important documents. We have activated the palace of justice.
In the field of business management there has been the review of the existing infrastructure for oil market supervision and control of its quality and we think that in the future we will have a better situation.
Preparations are underway throughout the period of the concession process of Brezovica ski centre and also for the project of Power Plant Kosova e re.
We made an agreement between the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development and the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare for seasonal employment of 985 workers in the forestry agency and we have also developed activities related to the construction of road infrastructure and new projects of infrastructure.
We have prepared the Law on Armed Forces of Kosovo and this law is awaiting changes, which should be made to the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo in the future.
Very good coordination has been made with the Western Balkan countries in terms of investments in energy and infrastructure investment. There was a meeting on March 25 in Pristina to materialize these projects and we made all our preparations to take active part in the meeting in Vienna, which will be held in mid-year, for joint implementation of these projects with Western Balkan countries.
Very important contacts have been made with our compatriots that are in Western countries, dealing with attracting of their investments here and also dealing with the integration of our citizens in the countries where they live.
The health strategy is prepared and will soon be submitted to the Government of the Republic of Kosovo.
During this period of 100 days, we have held 20 meetings of the Government and were issued 136 decisions. We have prepared 28 draft laws, which are reviewed by the Government and sent to the Assembly of Kosovo for review and approval and also have sent the ten decisions of the Government. We have also drafted eight concept papers, dealing mainly with the preparation of new laws and new documents, which will solve many of the problems that we currently face.
We consider that we had a significant synergy work between ministries and between members of the Cabinet, which has been easier, because we had a government program and path to determine which will be our basic objectives. These objectives have been that in the first place to ask the question of economic development and towards the issue of strengthening the rule of law, fight against corruption and organized crime, however always creating an independent space that this to be done by organs of justice and the Government not to interfere in these processes.
Thank You!
Last modified: July 31, 2022