Frankfurt, 10 November 2024
After preliminary meetings there with students and experts in the economy and the financial sector, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, together with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Donika Gërvalla Schwarz, were welcomed by members of our diaspora in Frankfurt Germany. In this organization of the Consulate of the Republic of Kosovo in Frankfurt, the deputy of the German Bundestag, Boris Mijatović and the member of the Parliament of the state of Hessen, Stephan Grüger, were also present, who each had a welcome speech.
In his address, the prime minister thanked the diaspora for their hospitality and enthusiasm, as he also expressed his gratitude to the state of Germany for its support, partnership and steadfast and unwavering alliance.
The Prime Minister further expressed to the diaspora that: “With your work and sweat, the teachers of the Albanian language were paid, but the liberation war and the peaceful resistance were also financed, to this day your remittances to Kosovo reach 20 percent of the gross domestic product . We are thankful and grateful beyond words, but unlike three decades ago when they told you to contribute by sacrificing, now we tell you to invest in order to benefit. Because Kosovo is growing, democratizing, strengthening, developing, and you are an inseparable part of it. Therefore, you do not need to be modest about your contribution, on the contrary, you should also benefit from your merits in your homeland.”
He underlined that the development that our country has known proves that democratic progress and economic growth can go hand in hand with each other and not at the expense of each. He also spoke about the work done in connecting professional education with the labor market, as well as added the importance for the government of connecting the diaspora with the state and increasing the forms and ways that facilitate the contribution of the diaspora to the development of the country, through initiatives such as the Program for Citizen Diplomacy or Diaspora Investment Window.
Deputy Prime Minister Gërvalla, while expressing her gratitude for the vital contribution of our compatriots, expressed her happiness that she continues to see the enthusiasm that has never died out among the diaspora.
“With a part of you, 30 years ago, 25 years ago, we filled the halls and squares of Frankfurt, Bonn, Hamburg and wherever we committed to help Kosovo from afar”, she said.
Prime Minister Kurti and Deputy Prime Minister Gërvalla invited the diaspora to continue the registration within the population census process for the diaspora that lasts until December 31 of this year, as well as the registration for voting from abroad in the upcoming elections, which for the first time can do physically or by post at the embassies and consulates of the Republic of Kosovo.
Last modified: November 11, 2024