Prishtina, 22 November, 2023
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, participated in the opening ceremony of the “KosovaPAR2023” Conference, where was discussed the future of Public Administration, the flexibility, stability and digitization of Public Administration, organized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which will become annual.
Prime Minister Kurti started his speech by thanking the relevant ministry for organizing this conference, as he called it, very important for our country and for Public Administration.
For Prime Minister Kurti, these conferences are important because they bring together academics, public officials from the country and the world to debate, to exchange both ideas and experiences about the best practices of public administration reform.
“The reform of the public administration, I want to emphasize that it is a priority of our Government. The practice of other countries in Europe has proven that an efficient, modern, transparent and accountable public administration is the key to all other reforms. So, the reform of the public administration is not like any other reform, because it is the reform that enables other reforms” said the Prime Minister.
In addition to the good functioning of the institutions, the prime minister emphasized that the reform of the Public Administration also brings about the improvement of the lives of our citizens, economic growth, justice and employment, and therefore European and Euro-Atlantic integration. Therefore, we are committed to making these reforms a reality.
He also mentioned the Law on Public Officials, through which we have created mechanisms, among others, for open recruitment for everyone from outside and within the public administration; regeneration and strengthening of human capacities and here with special emphasis on our compatriots and our emigrants; opening the system for the inclusion of women and girls in leadership positions; fair representation of non-majority communities in each category; equal opportunities for the employment of persons with disabilities; implementation of the career concept and real opportunities for career advancement through the mechanism of fixed-term mandates at managerial levels.
Meanwhile, speaking about the Law on Salaries of Public Officials, Prime Minister Kurti emphasized that it enables meritorious remuneration for public officials, removing injustices, arbitrariness and abuses.
“We have gone from a chaotic situation with 58 normative acts regulating salaries to only one comprehensive law, from 58 to 1; from 170 different allowances and bonuses, without any criteria and procedures, to only 15 well-defined allowances with clear criteria and procedures, that is, from 170 to 15, from 58 to 1,” he declared, adding that the difference between the salary the lowest and the highest, has gone from 20 times what it was to only 4.78 times, estimating that this ratio helps fight internal inequality, but also human dignity and the external economy in general.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Xhelal Sveçla, said that this international conference, which is the first of its kind to be organized in Kosovo, shows that our aim for a modern and efficient state administration was not just a promise. He emphasized that they are persistent in turning the public administration into a service dedicated to supporting social development, strengthening the state and raising services for each citizen and community, convinced that this is the best way to achieve the government’s objectives for well-being and development.
Prime Minister Kurti’s complete speech:
The honorable Mr. Xhelal Sveçla, Minister of Internal Affairs in the Government of the Republic of Kosovo,
The honorable Mr. Elbert Krasniqi, minister in the Ministry of Local Government Administration,
Dear Ms. Elisa Spiropali, Minister of State for Relations with the Parliament of the Republic of Albania,
Dear Mr. Bardhyl Dobra, Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Internal Affairs,
Dear ambassadors of the Republic of Germany and France, Mr. Jorn Rohde, and Mr. Oliver Guerot,
Dear Ambassadors,
Representatives of friendly countries in the Republic of Kosovo,
Dear Members of Parliament, Ministers and Deputy Ministers of the Government,
Representative and leader of local institutions
Dear Professor Drechsler,
Dear participants from many countries of the world and from Kosovo,
Ladies and gentleman,
Dear attendees,
I am thanking the Ministry of Internal Affairs for organizing this very important conference for our country but also for the Public Administration because the public administration and the republican state give meaning to each other not only in Kosovo but everywhere in the world. Allow me to continue this thanks especially to you participants who today have come from 20 different countries and continents such as Africa, North America, Latin America, Asia, and of course also from countries in the region and our continent, Europe.
You have come to be part of the first international conference for public administration, KosovaPAR2023, which from this year will become an annual event. These conferences are important because they bring together academics, public officials from the country and the world to debate, to exchange both ideas and experiences about the best practices of public administration reform. And when we are talking about public administration reform, I want to emphasize that it is a priority of our Government. The practice of other countries in Europe has proven that an efficient, modern, transparent and accountable public administration is the key to all other reforms. So, the public administration reform is not like any other reform, because it is the reform that enables other reforms.
In addition to the good functioning of the institutions, the reform of the public administration also brings about the improvement of the lives of our citizens, economic growth, justice and employment, and therefore the European and Euro-Atlantic integration. Therefore, we are committed to making these reforms a reality. There are many studies, which prove that the speed of European integration of a country that aspires to join the European Union, with the quality of public administration has the strongest correlation even with citizen well-being, economic development or social progress. So the quality of the public administration is even more important than these others in terms of the speed with which a country joins the EU.
The theme of the conference “Reform of Public Administration for a flexible and stable government”, reflects the goal of the government that I lead for a good government in the full sense of the word. A government that works on principles such as legality, rule of law, efficiency of institutions, service to citizens, transparency and accountability. This goal of ours, to which our citizens have joined in a plebiscite, is achieved through the reform of the public administration. And this process is already in progress.
The government is working closely with the best international experts, some of them present here today, has already approved the new strategy for public administration and the one for e-government, for electronic government, both coordinated with the National Development Plan 2030. A lot of great work has been done with the law on public officials and the law on wages in the public sector. In two words, the law on public officials enables the professionalism of the public administration by strengthening its human capacities. Meanwhile, with the Law on Public Officials, we have created, among other things, all the appropriate mechanisms for the following:
– Open recruitments for everyone from outside and within the public administration; Public administration, like the state, should not only be a guarantor of public services, but at the same time also open to all citizens, who become servants to citizens.
– Regeneration and strengthening of human capacities and here with special emphasis on our compatriots, our emigrants, we know that every third citizen of our country is not a resident, and on internships for young men and women. We must take care that even those who are abroad are inside the nation, and on the other hand we must also take care of the new generation, and taking care of those who come after us starts with taking care of the youth with the inclusion, with the integration of the youth;
– Opening the system for the inclusion of women and girls in leadership positions; we cannot have social equality, if we do not have gender equality and the fight against inequality, the most accurate test is exactly women’s participation and women’s decision-making.
– Fair representation of non-majority communities in each category;
– Equal opportunities for the employment of persons with disabilities;
– Living the career concept (career advancement opportunities for civil servants including those from scholarship programs such as the Young Cells Scheme; and,
– Real opportunities for career advancement through the mechanism of fixed-term mandates at managerial levels, in which case we also have performance measurement for quality and fairness. We don’t want quality without justice, but even a justice that is not in the service of increasing quality is also not sustainable.
This law enables what will be discussed in the next two days of this conference: flexibility and sustainability. So it is possible to be currently flexible and potentially stable, and in time.
To complete this action, the wage law enables meritorious remuneration for public officials, removing injustices, arbitrariness and abuses. So, we have gone from a chaotic situation with 58 normative acts regulating salaries to only one comprehensive law, from 58 to 1; from 170 different supplements and bonuses, without any criteria and procedures, to only 15 well-defined supplements with clear criteria and procedures, that is, from 170 to 15, from 58 to 1.
The difference between the lowest and the highest salary, i.e. the “compression ratio” has gone from 20 times to only 4.78 times. In our administration, the ratio of the highest salary to the lowest was 20 to 1, now it is 4.78 to 1. This helps the fight against internal inequality, but also helps the human dignity of the external economy in general. .
Since I also belong to a macroeconomic current, let’s say that it considers that the smaller the inequality in society, the greater the aggregate demand in the economy. In this way, with our example in public administration within the state, we show how society should be in that state. We start from ourselves, we are guided by our example both for others and for ourselves.
At the same time, the rationalization of agencies enables the increase in the speed of execution of decisions and the improvement of the efficiency of the public administration. The number of digitized public services has increased from less than 20 to over 150 services through the unique e-Kosova portal, including civil status services such as birth, marriage, and death and other certificates, property tax, grants and subsidies, police tickets and so on.
Kosovo may be a relatively small country, but it and its people are torchbearers of ideals inspired by the brightest minds in the world. Kosovo is and continues to be an example of how much can be achieved with dedication and work, how with good governance ranking in all international indicators for good governance, legality, rule of law, democracy, fight against crime and corruption, media freedom and human rights, political and civil, have not only improved but have made the Republic of Kosovo a leader in the Western Balkans.
As a result of concrete work, according to the Barometer for the Balkans 2023, 56% of citizens trust the Government; the average economic growth for the years 2021 and 2022 was 7.9% on average, the trend of economic growth continued this year as well, inflation dropped from 12% in January to 3.3% in October; 60 thousand new jobs for about two and a half years have been registered, which is an increase of about 16%; exports and foreign direct investments have doubled, while tax revenues have increased by 2/3 without changing the fiscal policy.
Because when the citizens of the Republic see a public administration and a democratic government that has no corruption, they are much more willing to contribute and pay taxes, and on the other hand, when they are optimistic about the future, they spend more than they save. it is good for their individual and family life, but also for the economy of our country.
As a result, we have managed to have opportunities for social welfare from this economic growth. We do not want the economic growth that enables both the private and the public sector to remain in the state, but we redistributed 842 million euros with government decisions to the citizens of the Republic, without creating new debts. So, it is not an increase in welfare through an increase in debt, but through an increase in the economy.
I am convinced that from the exchanges you will have on these topics and many others, new ideas and suggestions will emerge, which enable us to make our administration and governance more innovative, more agile, and above all more flexible and more stable at the same time. Consequently, our bureaucracy should also contribute to making our government more capable of being a worthy actor and supporter in innovation, development, but also a shield for those in need. The discussions will help us continue our reforms, which are elaborated in accordance with our goals for integration in the European Union. This experience will be shared with you during the panels by representatives of the Government of Kosovo.
But dear participants, we cannot be satisfied with that. The needs and challenges are great, as is our will, dedication, work and commitment to make the change sustainable and irreversible in the positive and progressive sense of the word. Therefore, the KosovaPAR2023 conference is an additional opportunity to work even more, to exchange with professionals from around the world, so that the change that is happening becomes even deeper and more comprehensive. Good work and I can’t wait to present our new achievements after one year at KosovaPAR2024!
Thank you.
Last modified: November 23, 2023