Pristina, March 22, 2023
Honorable citizens,
Tonight at 19:48 it will be two years since your Government was elected.
Honorable Deputy Prime Ministers, Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
At this time tomorrow, it will be two years since our first day of service.
The hope for better and the belief that it can be achieved are the cause and reason why we are here. Elected by the people to make the change, with a cabinet selected to realize the potential.
Today, the COVID-19 pandemic may seem like a distant memory to many of us. Sometimes surreal. But it is the pain of losing our loved ones, family and friends, that best reminds us of the danger we lived just a little less than two years ago. Two years ago, in March 2021, unfortunately for our citizens, Kosovo did not have even one vaccine and no contract for vaccines. It was the only one of its kind in the region. The previous government had failed to provide them.
The corona virus was not the only cause of the global health crisis. The lockdown and restrictive measures that states had implemented to manage the rate of its distribution had also greatly reduced economic activity. The world economy practically paused. Citizens, closed and uncertain about their future, were saving. In 2020, according to the World Bank, Kosovo suffered an economic contraction of -5.3%.
The opening of world economies and the return to normality, however positive and necessary, also had side effects. Rushing to catch up, overwhelmed by huge market demands, the largest manufacturing economies needed more electricity consumption. Even more than what could be produced. At the end of 2021, the continent of Europe, but not only, was facing an energy crisis. Less electricity on the market meant higher prices for energy imports, which had a domino effect on the increase in the prices of basic products.
The beginning of 2022 shocked the continent of Europe, but not surprisingly. Russia’s public and diplomatic aggression against Ukraine, on February 24, took the form of traditional military aggression. Last month they turned 1 year old. The war on the one hand and the joint sanctions against the Russian Federation on the other, aggravated the current world crisis even more.
Russia was one of the largest exporters of oil and gas in the world market. Electricity, which enables production, and oil, which enables the transportation of manufactured products, one at the beginning and the other at the end of the supply chain of the products we consume, directly affected imported inflation.
In Kosovo, the dependence on the import of electricity, in the absence of sufficient electricity generation capacities and on the products that we consume in the absence of local production, shamelessly exposed 13 years of misgovernance and the short-sightedness of economic policies.
The country needed restoration, recovery, revival. Return to normality. Recovery of damages. Economic revival.
It took our government only 2 months, as opposed to 9 months for the previous government, to negotiate and sign the contract with the Pfizer company for 1.2 million doses of vaccines. Within the first 100 days we provided 2 million of them. Together with the help and donations of our partners, especially the United States of America and the European Union, from last in the region, in record time, and despite loud skeptics, Kosovo came first in the Western Balkans in terms of population percentage vaccinated with at least one dose.
Health workers know best what an arduous but successful undertaking it was to administer over 1.6 million vaccines within 6 months of the start of mass vaccination to immunize 60% of the target population. Without their professionalism and selflessness, it would not be possible, as well as without the high awareness of citizens to respond to calls to be vaccinated. Even today, we are thankful and grateful. But, as we remember and mark the success of the vaccination campaign, allow me to once again express my deepest condolences to all those whose loved ones were taken away by the pandemic.
Mass vaccination was the key to recovery towards revival. It enabled the increase of economic activity, which together with the trust in the new government, the hope for the future, the emergency fiscal measures and the Economic Recovery package dictated the economic and budgetary performance beyond the expectations at the beginning of the year.
Economic growth in the first year of government was 10.7% of the gross domestic product, the highest in the country’s history. Budget revenues increased by 1/3 compared to the previous year. Exports were over 100% higher compared to 2019, the first closest non-pandemic year or exactly 109.4%. The economy grew by 1.18 billion euros.
In the second year, we recorded economic growth of about 4%, after removing inflation. Tax revenues increased by about 20%. The value of exports increased by 23%, thus approaching, more than ever before, the amount of 1 billion. This growth trend has caused the ratio between export and import to improve from almost 1 to 9 as it was in 2019, to less than 1 to 6 as it is currently. From 1 to 9 to 1 to 6 for two years. Meanwhile, foreign investments in 2022 reached a record value of 772 million euros.
And yet, despite the difficulties caused by the pandemic, the energy crisis and the consequences of the war in Ukraine, the average economic growth in these two years has been about 7%, which is higher than any other average growth for two consecutive years since independence. For two years, 760 million euros have been added to the state budget, and 2.1 billion euros to the economy. All this without changes in fiscal policies. A direct result of good governance, fighting the informal economy, preventing smuggling, formalizing workers and narrowing the tax gap.
As a social democratic government, we redistributed this economic growth to the citizens. For their protection, for their well-being. For two years, we designed and executed two support packages for them, from which almost every family in the Republic benefited.
– Over 280,000 pensioners received allowances of 100 euros for a total of three months.
– We supported more than 24 thousand families with social assistance, doubling their payment for a total of four months, this payment, which we had previously raised by 30%.
– We provided financial support to 2,950 families who lost family members due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
– Over 66,000 students benefited twice from one-time allowances of 100 euros.
– Through 42 partner non-governmental organizations, we distributed over 36,000 food packages, and through 19 popular kitchens, over 350,000 meals for families and those in need.
– Nearly 76,000 public officials initially benefited from an increase of 100 euros in April last year and later another 200 euros until the end of the year.
– The workers of the private sector, in addition to the one-time support of 100 euros, also benefited from the salary increase from their employers. Last week, subsidies for employers were executed, which increased the salaries of 17 thousand workers in the private sector.
– Over 208,000 families benefited from subsidizing electricity bills to save energy, over 9,000 families were subsidized for the purchase of efficient heating equipment, at the same time that electricity tariffs for all citizens and businesses are being subsidized by the Government since February 2022.
– From September 2021, over 34,000 post-partum mothers have received allowances of 170 euros for three or six months, while currently nearly 340,000 children in Kosovo under the age of 16 receive monthly allowances.
– We designed and financed several employment measures for certain social categories through wage subsidies. About 5,000 women and 239 people with disabilities have been employed through them. Nearly 1,500 more families have registered at least one employed member, thanks to the “Government for Families” scheme. And on the Superpuna platform for young people between the ages of 18 and 25, which we launched just last month, so far there are over 1,500 employment relationships for this age group for a total of 7 years, that is, from 18 to 25 years old.
– For the local farmer, we increased the financial support up to 216%.
– We facilitated the application procedures and for two years we distributed 110 million euros in subsidies and 26 million euros in grants, with which we supported about 30 thousand farmers.
– In total, we redistributed over 842 million euros, as we consolidated public finances and did not incur new debts. Example of public finance management.
In these 24 months of journey together, our will and ambitions have faced a difficult inherited terrain and at the same time unprecedented external challenges. Good management, wise policies and social solidarity were required of us. Including here one of the most difficult tasks of governance: the balance between fidelity to the vision for the future and pragmatism in addressing the problems of the present.
These were our answers to the questions raised by the pandemic, the energy crisis and the war in Ukraine. I deeply believe that there have been the right answers to these three challenges and with these we have succeeded as a state, as a society, as institutions.
While:
• We reached the $236.7 million agreement with the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the American MCC, for batteries with a capacity of 340 MWh.
• We signed the “Solar4Kosovo” project, an investment of 64 million for the construction of a 70 MW solar heating plant, one of the largest in Europe.
• We inaugurated the Wind Park in Selac with a capacity of 105 MW.
• We made public education free, thus freeing over 42 thousand students from semester and administrative fees.
• We hired over 160 assistants for children with special needs.
• We completed the works in four nurseries and the adaptation of five schools to kindergartens.
• We piloted dual education for four profiles, with 107 students in 28 enterprises, with the aim of connecting professional education with the labor market.
• We returned the Kosovo Agency for Accreditation to ENQA, as an associate member after the exclusion in 2019.
• We distributed nearly 4,000 student scholarships for studies in the country and abroad, 2,000 of them for female students in the STEM field.
•Trepça last year, for the first time since the war, recorded a positive financial balance.
•We advanced towards Veting in justice after the green light from the Venice Commission.
• We functionalized the Commercial Court.
• We approved the Law on the Bureau for Confiscation of Unjustified Assets and the Law on Kosovo Prosecution Council, which have been sent to the Constitutional Court, as we know, and our reform is being delayed.
• We saved about 100 million euros from the budget thanks to the victories of the Republic of Kosovo in International Arbitration.
• We destroyed 14 drug laboratories, of which 8 in the north.
• We closed 16 illegal roads in the north of the country that were used for smuggling by criminal groups.
• Around 2 tons of narcotic substance were seized.
• More than 100 illegally built villas in the national park in Brezovica were seized.
• We saved and protected up to 65 monuments thanks to emergency interventions and restorations.
• We organized the nomadic Biennale “Manifesta 14”, during which 800 thousand visits were registered and where artistic works of 103 artists from 30 countries were exhibited;
• We established the institution of the Kosovo Opera.
• We approved the conditions for the Announcement of the Procurement Procedure for the “Adem Jashari” Memorial Complex Project in Prekaz.
• We licensed dozens of sports federations.
• We filled the empty state reserves.
• We increased the number of field inspections.
• We formalized with valid licenses 98% of fuel sellers, from only 50% in 2020.
• We practically doubled the budget of the Ministry of Defense.
• We invested in military equipment.
• Over 1240 new soldiers were recruited.
• We removed the number limitation of the KSF, thus making it open to every young man and woman up to the age of 25.
• We took the historic step of applying to the European Union and the Council of Europe for membership.
• We unlocked the visa liberalization process, which is expected to be completed very soon.
• We returned 3 state-owned customs terminals and 2 more are in the process.
• We worked and engaged in the revitalization of Kosovo’s railway network.
• We signed an agreement with Albania for co-financing for the feasibility study and project for the Pristina-Durres railway line.
• We signed the agreement for the construction of the Pejë-Rozhajë and Deçan-Plavë roads.
• We opened the procedures for the construction of the national and regional roads, Kijeva – Zahaq, Prishtina – Podujeva and Pristina – Mitrovica.
• We also functionalized the National Center of Physical Medicine and Medical Rehabilitation.
• We doubled the budget for the List of Essential Medicines.
• We approved in the Government the draft law on the ceiling price of medicines, as well as the administrative instruction for the licensing of foreign health professionals, which creates facilities for doctors from the Presheva Valley.
• We allocated 2 million euros for Presheva, Medvegja and Bujanoci, while until now before 2021 the Government of Kosovo and that of Albania together had allocated less than 500 thousand euros for the valley.
• We finalized the internal reform and returned legality to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora.
• We engaged expatriate professionals in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora through the Citizen Diplomacy program.
• We advanced diplomatic relations with Poland and East Timor and the status of the Kosovo Office in Greece.
• We increased the number of digitized administrative services.
• Through the Ministry of Local Government, we supported the municipalities with about 40 million euros, of which about 100 projects are only capital investments.
• We removed the obligation for car homologation.
• We covered the costs of the green card for emigration.
• We approved the Law on Salaries and the Law on Public Officials and the reform that these two laws enable in the public administration.
• We improved by 20 places in Transparency International’s Corruption Index for better and 17 places in Reporters Without Borders’ Freedom of the Press index.
• We were ranked first in the Western Balkans for the second year in a row and second in the world in terms of improvement in the rule of law, according to the (World Justice Project).
• As well as in the first place in the Western Balkans, the second in Europe and the third in the world in terms of progress achieved in political rights and civil liberties according to the latest report of theFreedom House.
And many other important decisions and initiatives for which, honorable members of the government cabinet, I invite you to present to the citizens one by one in the following days and weeks, such as the activity of the ministries that you lead.
Aware of the needs and demands of the country, in the second part of our mandate we must do even more, even faster.
Thank you and good luck.
Last modified: March 28, 2023