Prime Minister Kurti’s initial address:
Prishtina, December 2, 2024
Thank you, dear vice-president of the Assembly of the Republic and president of this plenary session,
Honorable Members of Parliament and citizens of Kosovo,
I stand before you today with pride and confidence in this four-year term of our governance, which has been filled with accomplishments and more challenges than we are usually accustomed to. It is a story of changes that affect the daily lives of all citizens, meaning every social category as well.
These success stories simultaneously speak of a better future that excludes no one and the figures, which I will present, undoubtedly have spirit, as they have set in motion the well-being of citizens, their development, opportunities for the future without discrimination or privilege.
Let’s start with the economy, which has recorded the largest and at the same time solid growth. Over the past three years, we have experienced an average economic growth of 6.36% of Gross Domestic Product and none of these three years of our governance has had economic growth of less than 4%. When talking about real economic growth, of course, after inflation is removed, this remains above 4 percent. And, at the same time, we have reduced the public debt. However, we have not experienced an economic growth, which is done at the expense of the future, increasing debt, but we have reduced the debt to a level of only 17 percent or a quarter less than what we found.
Unemployment, which once felt like a heavy cloud over Kosovar families, has today dropped from 25.8 percent to 10.7 percent. The challenge that remains for us in this aspect is the activation of women, as the number of inactive women is greater than we want and need.
However, it is clear that in Kosovo today, we have a reduced unemployment rate, as we have an increased employment rate. As the Chairman of the Parliamentary Group of the AAK also stated in March 2021, when we took office on March 23, which means that I am reporting today for 4 years, but it will also take a few more months for this matter, at that time in Kosovo there were a total of 350 thousand employed citizens. Meanwhile, today as we speak there are 430 thousand. So, there are 80 thousand more than in the spring of 2021, which represents a 22 percent increase in employment.
On the other hand, we know that it is not enough to just create jobs, but it is necessary for the private sector, which is the main driver of employment, to have an increase in activity, to have hope for growth of their businesses and to reinvest their profits, because that is a clear expression of optimism in the economy, which is a very important factor for development. In this respect, we have transitioned from a circulation of 12 billion euros to a circulation of 22 billion euros.
Furthermore, we have provided direct support for the employment of 12 thousand women. We now have a new minimum wage, 350 euros, while we found it to be 130 and 170 euros. There was age discrimination. Youths under 35 years old have received only 130 euros as the minimum wage, while those over 35 years old have received a minimum wage of 170 euros. Now it’s 350 for everyone, which means with the upper threshold, 170 euros is more than double, because 350 is more than double 170. The minimum wage has not been touched for a decade beforehand.
The capital expenditures in 2023 were the highest in the history of independent Kosovo, 561 million euros, and during the nine months of 2024, we have seen a 23 percent increase in capital expenditures compared to the previous year. Indeed, we are not comparing ourselves in this aspect with previous governments, but we are comparing ourselves with the previous year, which means with ourselves.
Furthermore, 14 thousand young people between the ages of 18 and 29 have been employed through the government platform Superpuna, where 51 percent are women, and 49 percent are men. About 9,500 businesses have benefited. We have received the initial sovereign credit rating of BB- from Fitch Ratings Agency, which has also been confirmed by the sixth-month report of 2024. Before that, Kosovo has not appeared at all on the map in the international economic arena. For the first time, we have this evaluation and we are working for it to improve and go even higher than this.
In the year 2020, the unpaid invoices by previous governments for goods and services received from businesses amounted to 141.6 million euros. There is a debt to the private sector that we have had, and this debt we have reduced by lowering it to only 33 million euros.
Kosovo`s Gross Domestic Product is nearly 50 percent higher than the pre-pandemic year of 2019. We are not comparing ourselves to the year 2020, as it was a pandemic year, when we had economic downturn, but we are comparing ourselves to the year 2019.
Recently, we have also approved the budget for the year 2025, and you all know that the budget for the upcoming year is 50 percent higher than the budget we found in 2021. The budget for the first year of our government is 2.4 billion, while for the next year, it will be 3.6 billion, precisely 50 percent higher.
In Kosovo, we have the evidence, with which we should be internationally proud, that both liberation and independence and freedom and democracy are very worthwhile, since the Gross Domestic Product of our country for this year is seven times higher than in the year 2000, which is the first year after liberation. Of course, we cannot be compared to 1999, due to the genocide and the destruction of war. Let’s compare ourselves with the year 2000, the first year after liberation. Moreover, in 2024, compared to the year 2000, our country’s economy is seven times higher. Meanwhile, compared to 2008 when independence was declared, the economy is three times larger than it was back then. Compared to the pre-pandemic year 2019, it is 50 percent higher. So more freedom, more democracy, more rights, is also more economy. We are an extraordinary example in the world when there is a great battle for the narrative of how economic development and democratic progress go hand in hand.
Everyone knows that there is a superpower and a power that want to show that development does not need democracy and our state is showing it, although it is not great, that democracy and the economy go together. And here we have an intensified surge precisely in these last three or four years.
According to the latest report from the European Commission, it is the final annual report for our government in this mandate. It is stated that Kosovo is among the top performers in our region, and a total of 38 different areas of progress in Kosovo have been evaluated, of which we have made more or less progress in 36 areas. Only in two out of 38 cases we do not have progress, while in 36 we have progress, some more and some less, but without progress we are not.
Furthermore, I believe that the growth we have experienced as an economy is largely due to the rule of law and the significant fight against corruption. The budget for the Kosovo Police has increased by about 50 percent, 124 criminal groups have been dismantled, including 43 groups for economic crimes and corruption, and 40 groups in the fight against drugs. Approximately 300 public officials have been arrested. Approximately 4.5 tons of narcotics have been confiscated, 37 illegal roads have been closed, 29 of them in the northern part of the country. 6 cryptocurrency mining laboratories have been destroyed in the north, we now have nine police stations for border monitoring and control in the north. There has never been any before.
It is a record number of inspections by the Central Market Supervision Inspectorate, 82 percent more inspections in the last three years compared to the previous three years. Approximately 145 million euros have been saved to the budget of Kosovo from three victories in international arbitration, and 12 weapon locations or depots have been discovered in 4 northern municipalities, and this continues, once per month, then per week, and now even per day.
The illegal Serbian municipalities in North Mitrovica; Leposaviq, Zveçan, Zubin Potok, as well as in Gorazhdec or Vraniq, Vranisht, Rahovec, Suhareka, Prizren, and Skenderaj have been closed.
We have declared criminal organizations, Civil Protection, and the Northern Brigade as terrorist organizations on June 29th of last year, and their influence as organizations in northern Kosovo has been eliminated. That doesn’t mean there aren’t criminal elements still out there.
After 24 years, offices of the Kosovo Business Registration Agency and the Municipal Cadastres have been opened and operationalized in the northern municipalities to serve the citizens and legal businesses.
6 branches of the Postal Savings Bank of Serbia have been closed as illegal institutions within our country’s territory. The People’s Bank of Serbia, the branch in Kosovo and the Treasury Directorate in Leposavic, both of these illegal institutions of Serbia in Kosovo, were raided and closed. Five million seven hundred seventy-two thousand three hundred seventy Serbian dinars, fifty-seven thousand six hundred twenty-six US dollars, and ten thousand two hundred ninety Swiss francs have been seized from this operation.
Infrastructure has also been developed in the northern part of Kosovo with priority, to connect the villages there among themselves and with the municipalities in the south, totaling 63.3 kilometers.
Houses are being constructed and renovated, while the telecommunication infrastructure is being modernized for 4G+ and 5G services.
More and more citizens are cooperating with the state of Kosovo, 4040 citizens of the Serbian community have surrendered illegal plates issued by Serbia and have been provided with official plates of the Republic of Kosovo, 6325 citizens of the Serbian community have invalidated illegal driver’s licenses from Serbia and have been provided with official ones from Kosovo, and precisely this success of our common state in northern Kosovo has increased nervousness and aggressiveness in Belgrade.
Regarding foreign policy, we have successfully applied for and passed the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe towards membership in the Council of Europe, for which I thank you, honorable members of the Assembly, for the work and dedication you have shown.
We have advanced Kosovo’s status in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, applied for membership in the European Union, and joined ten international organizations.
I am aware that we have been criticized for not having new recognitions, but you must also understand one thing, neither visa liberalization nor new recognitions have been promised in the campaign.
We have emphasized employment and justice in the campaign. For snow, we need to measure ourselves compared to our commitments that we have given in the 2021 campaign and in the subsequent government program.
(Addressing the deputies in the hall: Believe me, I am interested in listening to all of you, I just kindly asked to be able to hear myself as well, which means listen to yourselves too and let’s not make noise where we speak as if deafening each other. Please, I will listen to all of you. I beg you to listen to me, because you called me in the report.
It is not an extraordinary session called by the prime minister. You have invited me to listen to me and I will introduce you to you and we cannot be short, because you have invited me for four years of governance. You haven’t invited me for four weeks, but for four years.
Moreover, having pledged membership in international organizations, we have joined ten of them. For example, the Open Government Partnership, the International Commission on Missing Persons, the European Youth Card Association, and others.
Furthermore, we have accepted and also provided jobs for Ukrainian journalists and have accepted 1961 refugees from Afghanistan at the request of the United States of America.
(Addressing the deputies in the hall: Honestly, it’s not okay to laugh when we talk about refugees).
We have accepted 1961 refugees from Afghanistan in Kosovo.
We have signed around 300 international and interinstitutional agreements of various kinds. The Schengen visa liberalization has been implemented. Visa-free travel is from January 1, 2024. This has also been accompanied by the visa liberalization for countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and Thailand.
We have held around fifty political consultations with various countries from all continents. We have bought and made five embassies of our Republic in the world, in the United States of America, United Kingdom, Senegal, Croatia, and Strasbourg, property of Kosovo.
Previously, very expensive rents have been paid. Now no rent is paid, so the rent is saved, plus we have our own property and we plan to buy five more embassies in Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Turkey.
For the diaspora, we have the program or platform Enjoy Kosovo, we have organized summer and winter camps, various festivals, with cultural and sports activities, the platform Made in Kosovo, and also the week of culture abroad.
We are organizing this year as well, just like last year, the organization of the Ulpiana Forum International Forum and also, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora has increased subsidies from less than a quarter of a million to over a million for the diaspora.
The program for citizen diplomacy has been launched, aimed at connecting young professionals from the diaspora, and at the same time, the government has offered up to eight million euros in additional capital, while the Kosovo Credit Guarantee Fund has offered two million and will release credits up to three million euros for investments, with which the first contracts have already been signed.
We have had two joint meetings with Albania. We have signed fifty-eight agreements. Albania is Kosovo’s main trading partner in 2023. Trade exchanges with Albania in 2020 amounted to three hundred million euros, while in 2023 this value has increased to over 440 million euros.
We have operationalized the Alpex common energy market, we have collaborated for the successful candidacy of Kosovo for the organization of the 2030 Mediterranean Games and for the European Championship in volleyball for girls under 16.
We are co-financing the major project Albanian Encyclopedia and offering scholarships to students in Kosovo and Albania.
We enable the access to elderly pensions and recognition of insurance periods, contributions paid for citizens of both countries. We have opened the Customs offices of Kosovo in Porto Romano and Durrës. We have reduced that scanning from one hundred percent of the vehicles to ten percent, allowing the movement of citizens across the border without any control for nine months during one year, and for the remaining three months there is again no need for control during holidays and long weekends.
We have extended the provision of medical services from the hospitals of the border areas Kukës, Gjakovë, Prizren to their residents and have signed agreements for the construction of the Prishtina-Durrës railway. The feasibility study will be finalized in February 2025.
We have opened twenty-six new border crossings for over two hundred thousand residents of the border area and have opened new air corridors for commercial flights, reducing flight trajectories to and from Kosovo to eight to twelve minutes, or shortening distances to ninety to one hundred and ten kilometers.
Honorable Members of the Assembly,
For the municipalities of Kosovo, the budget for this year 2024 has 195 million euros more than in 2021 when it was 547 million euros. This year there is a total of 742 million euros, while in 2025 we will have 788 million euros for municipalities. This represents a 44 percent increase from 2021, the year we took office, to 2025.
Regarding justice, we have established and operationalized the Commercial Court, we have approved in the Assembly on first reading, the Draft Law on the Administrative Court, then we have made a memorandum for the operationalization of the shelter in the north of Mitrovica, and we have also established the Institute for Crimes Committed during the War in Kosovo within the framework of Transitional Justice addressing crimes committed during the war where the strategy for this transitional justice has also been approved, enabling trial in absentia for war crimes through the entry into force of procedural criminal changes, as well as the allocation of resources to increase the capacities of the special prosecution, four prosecutors and six special collaborators and two support staff.
The Law on the State Bureau for the Confiscation of Unjustified Assets has been approved by the Government, following consideration by the Constitutional Court on several articles. We have made the first bid for the one hundred-megawatt solar park in Kramovik, Rahovec, offering fifteen years of electricity purchase, thirty years of public land use license, and the ceiling price was 75 euros per megawatt-hour. However, thanks to the public auction we organized with USAID, at the end of the competition, the consortium won, which will sell electricity for only forty-eight euros and eighty-eight cents per megawatt-hour.
We have also reached agreements on solar generating capacities in public enterprises, one hundred megawatts owned by KEK and 50 megawatts thermal for central heating for 60 thousand residents of Prishtina, an innovative project, the first of its kind in the region and one of the largest in Europe.
With the United States of America, specifically their institution called the Millennium Challenge Corporation, we have signed an agreement for 236.7 million dollars, of which the compact program provides us with a grant of 202 million dollars, not a loan, but a grant, for the construction of storage batteries with a capacity of 170 megawatts for two hours, totaling 340 megawatt hours. Given that our strategy will be highly focused on renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, and we know that the sun does not shine at night, and the wind blows most in the early morning hours when we need it the least, batteries are essential, and this is precisely what the compact program of the millennium challenge corporation is enabling us now.
Public education has become free for bachelor’s and master’s degrees, over 173 thousand students have been exempted from fees since 2021, we have over 10 million euros in support for students, over 10,200 of whom, especially scholarships for girls and women in STEM fields, in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, have been successful.
There are around 2,000 scholarships for students from Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian communities, where we know that poverty is even deeper, more widespread, and nearly five hundred thousand euros are for educational centers of children from these communities. 339 assistants for children with special needs, each with a gross salary of 550 euros, the budget has been allocated to municipalities for the employment of a total of five hundred assistants.
In 2021, honorable MPs, 5555 children were registered in kindergartens in Kosovo, while in 2024, there are 7429 children or 1874 four children more than in 2021, an increase of 33 percent. Over the past three years, the number of children in daycare has increased by 33 percent. All daycare requests from municipalities have been processed, but we encourage municipalities to request more daycares for children in the municipalities they govern.
For the first time, we have also conducted a review of the teaching texts of grades one to nine for the subjects of Albanian language and mathematics by improving the content in terms of evaluative, conceptual, contextual, gender, human rights, and other aspects.
One of the most important programs is the connection of the labor market with education and professional skills, twelve profiles, twenty-three vocational schools, fourteen municipalities, a total of 1588 students, have been involved in the implementation of six new curricula and three other curricula are approved and expected to be implemented. We have unified the National Primer with the Republic of Albania. Until 2021, dear MPs, Kosovo and Albania had two primers behind them. From 2021 onwards, in the first grade of primary school, it is the same primer. We have also funded 16 joint research projects with Albania, each project with 10 thousand euros. We have increased the budget for public art institutions significantly. The Philharmonic, from 345 thousand euros in 2019, now has a budget of 1.3 million euros. The National Gallery, from 189 thousand euros to 1 million euros, and the Theater, from 300 thousand to 750 thousand euros.
Thank you!
We strengthened the independent cultural scene. 1.5 million was in 2019 and 9 million euros have direct support now. We have also increased the budget for the book and the author we have found to 150 thousand euros, we have raised it to 1 million euros per year.
Subsequently, we have made the film a sector of special interest, with a new law that introduces a rebate scheme of up to 30 percent on international investments in audiovisual productions, increasing support for film productions from 51 percent to 90 percent of the production value. Furthermore, for debut directors, for the first time, short and medium-length works are eligible for support of up to one hundred percent. We have established the cinema network and protected them from privatization or change of purpose.
We have signed intergovernmental agreements in the fields of sports, culture, cultural heritage, and youth with France, Bulgaria, Austria, Albania, Turkey, Israel, Hungary, and Malta. We are implementing the five-year plan for football infrastructure, involving 18 municipalities, over 20 stadiums, 200 million euros in investments. We are also renovating and constructing category three and four stadiums, according to UEFA standards, in Mitrovica, Gjakova, Gjilan, Ferizaj, Peja, Pristina, and Drenas.
The annual budget for the care and investments in cultural heritage is higher than ever, three times larger than in 2021. We have stopped the degradation of monuments and we are putting them at the service of the community and the local economy. 26 years after the glorious battle of the Kosovo Liberation Army, we approved the project for the development of the Adem Jashari Memorial Complex in Prekaz. Over the past three and a half years of governance, 100 completed interventions on monuments across the entire territory of Kosovo.
Over just three and a half years, we have restored more than in the previous two decades combined.
The destruction of around 1800 monuments and the theft of over 3700 artifacts from Serbia have been identified, a report of which has been submitted to the Institute for Crimes Committed during the War. The funding for sports has tripled, from 3 million as it was, to over 11 million euros. We have approved the Super Athletes program with 4 million euros for the Olympic cycle to support elite athletes for outstanding success in sports competitions. We have developed the programs Sports in Schools, Art in Schools, and Towards the Mountain, where in the testing phase 20 thousand students from dozens of schools have benefited. We have allocated 150 scholarships for students and we are supporting young professionals in studying abroad, in art, sports, and cultural heritage.
In agriculture, over 300 million euros of financial support for nearly 120 thousand beneficiaries, including 10 million euros for women in agriculture through subsidies and grants, 23 million euros for fuel subsidies, 34 million euros for spring fertilization subsidies, 103 constructed barns, in 2020, 0. 951 beneficiaries of grants for the installation of solar panels with a total capacity of 4.3 megawatts, 70 scholarships for students worth 2400 euros, and also a 184% increase in support from international partnerships worth 51 million euros. Therefore, we are ready for triple international support when they have seen our seriousness.
Regarding infrastructure, the works are in the final phase as on the road: Prishtina – Mitrovica and Prishtina – Podujevo, but also on the roads Prishtina – Peja and Prizren – Tetovo, construction works are in progress. The Prishtina – Mitrovica road project started in the distant year of 2009, 15 years ago, transforming a two-lane road into a national road with two directions and a total of four lanes, with a project value of 25 million euros.
We have reduced the cost of the Prishtina-Peja road in the first segment Kievë-Dollc from 240 million euros to 90 million euros, thus saving 150 million euros. Furthermore, the road Istog-Peja-Deçan-Gjakova-Rahovec-Prizren has been designed and will be ready for construction to begin next year. We have made investments in 243 local infrastructure projects in collaboration with municipalities, one hundred and seventy-four of them have been initiated in this mandate.
We have also finalized agreements for the roads Deçan-Plavë, Pejë-Kuqishtë-Morinë, and Pejë-Rozhaj, as these roads, for example, Deçan-Plavë, from our side, are open and paved with asphalt up to the border, with forty percent of it already asphalted.
There are still no specific steps from the other party. The road Pejë-Kuqishtë-Morinë is paved up to the border on our side, but at the border, it is closed off with barriers since the post-war period. We have been informed that Montenegro has now started the design of this road, while the Pejë-Rozhaj road is being built, the feasibility study and the road project are being done, but there is still no concrete action.
We have reformed and digitized the process of obtaining driver’s licenses in the same ministry and for the preservation of public funds and proper budget spending, in other words, we have reduced the budget for expropriations by 82 million euros, whereas earlier road maintenance cost 57 million euros for three years, now with the contracts we have signed, with modified measures, we have reduced maintenance to 38 million euros while road maintenance coverage has increased by 37 percent.
So, the cost has been reduced by 1/3 and the coverage has increased by 37 percent. Over 200 million euros are planned investments for the rehabilitation of the railway line Hani i Elezit – Leshak. In order to implement affordable housing, the feasibility study has been completed, the law has been drafted, locations have been selected in thirteen municipalities, the design has been done, we have signed five agreements with Gjilan, Peja, Podujeva, Istog, and Kamenica, and we are very close to signing with Obiliq and Shtime. Meanwhile, for Social Housing, after the completion of the feasibility study and drafting of the law, an agreement has also been signed for a loan worth twenty-five million euros with the European Council Development Bank.
For the first time in the Republic of Kosovo, the Government has a regular budget line for the Albanians of Presheva, Medvegja, and Bujanovac. The increase in financial support has been raised from two to three million euros in the budget for the year 2024 and 4 million euros for the following year. Out of 107 scholarships for Albanian students in 2023, we have planned 1234 scholarships for both students and pupils in 2024, focusing more on students than on pupils. Moreover, we are investing in preserving the culture, tradition, and language there through a memorandum of cooperation with the National Albanian Council. We have also facilitated benefits for compatriots from the Valley, through the Law on the Citizenship of Kosovo, which has been approved in the first reading, to quotas for specialist medical education, equal treatment for patients from there in Kosovo hospitals, just like citizens of Kosovo.
We have enabled lawyers from the Preshevo Valley, who have residency permits in Kosovo, to apply for the bar exam. We have approved the Law on Foreign Ownership Rights that allows the residents of the Valley to become owners of immovable property in Kosovo. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has prepared and published the application form for permanent residence in exceptional circumstances for undocumented citizens from Presheva, Medvegja, and Bujanoc.
At public institutions, the representation of women is now 45.6 percent. Within ministries, executive agencies, and at the central level – 441 women, or 32.1 percent of leadership positions in public institutions, are as follows: In the public administration, 36.4% are lower-level managers of divisions and sectors; 20.4% are middle managers of departments; 23.1% are senior managers, general secretaries, and executive directors; and the participation rate of women in the public administration, which was set at 40%, is currently at 46%.
In public enterprises, the representation of women has also improved significantly. In 2017, it was 10 percent. As we speak, it is 43 percent. From 10 percent to 43 percent of appointed members in public enterprises. We also have two female chief executives in the main public central enterprises: Nora Rraci works at the Post of Kosovo, and Burbuqe Hana at the Telekom of Kosovo.
Maternity and child allowances have greatly helped women and families in general. Over 60 thousand benefiting mothers, over 19 thousand employed and over 43 thousand unemployed of them, over 400 thousand children and about 100 thousand women have benefited from child allowances, which is very strange if it had not happened, they have opened accounts banking for the first time in Kosovo, because of these maternity allowances or child allowances, which we provide in the name of the mother.
172 thousand visits have been made at home and over 67 thousand visits just in 2024 for mothers and children. Mammography is free throughout the year, and breast reconstruction is also offered for free, while breast implants are now provided by the public sector and the private price has been between 3000 and 5000 euros. By the year 2022, the majority of breast cancer cases were diagnosed in stage three or four. Now, in 2023 and 2024, the majority of cases are diagnosed in stage one, for which treatment and cure are much more easily achievable.
In 2024, a total of 17,592 joint properties were registered in the name of both spouses, that is, the husband and the wife, free of charge, compared to 105 in 2016. From around 100 to nearly 18 thousand. So, from 100 to nearly 18 thousand, 180 times more. This is a very important empowerment of women in our country.
But, we do not govern only for the Albanians. We do not privilege Albanians. We govern for national minorities as well: Serbs, Bosnians, Turks, Roma, Ashkali, Egyptians, but also Gorani, Montenegrins, and Croats. 215 grants for farmers, young entrepreneurs, through a fund of 3 million euros, and an interesting fact is that by November 8, 2024, 460 job seekers and 176 employers have applied and there are still 547 vacant positions and 379 job placements within the special employment measure for 2000 citizens of the municipalities of Leposaviq, Zveçan, Zubin Potok, and north of Mitrovica.
We have established the interinstitutional group against early marriages of Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian communities and also for promoting their employment, through which we have ensured a 31 percent increase in the number of job positions secured for these three communities that have been and continue to be still in significantly higher unemployment and poverty rates than the national average.
We have built and renovated houses that provide attractive living conditions for the communities, ensuring a stable environment, and we have done this, of course, for the Albanians in the north of Ibër.
The restart of the diploma verification process at the University of North Mitrovica is done with the aim of not excluding Serbs from the job market. We have not licensed, we have verified, because we know the constitutional and legal provisions regarding this matter.
Over the past ten months, 261 new businesses have been registered in northern Kosovo, and we encourage businesses to register in northern Kosovo, open their branches, so that our Serbian citizens do not miss out on the services and goods of our country.
We broadcasted live the Government meetings in the Serbian language since October 2023. All Serbian citizens in Kosovo can receive all Government decisions in real-time in their language.
Different affirmative measures, from employment to the conversion of driver’s licenses, have marked our government for the attractive community and of course, it is increasingly helping us with digital transformation, with which the e-Kosovo portal that we started in 2021 now has 195 online services. Over 971 thousand citizens of Kosovo are registered in e-Kosova. The number of service transactions in E-Kosovo has increased from 1.92 million in 2022 to 3.84 million service transactions in 2023, representing a fixed increase of 100 percent.
In September 2024, citizens have chosen to receive the electronic version of the property certificate in 46 percent of cases where they have received such a certificate. So, half of the citizens, when given the physical or digital opportunity, are opting for the digital version.
We have approved the five-year e-governance investment strategy of 48 million euros from the Government and partners. Meanwhile, in the World Bank’s GTMI index, as a country, we have advanced from Group C to Group B, as a government focused on digitalization.
In the healthcare sector, the budget compared to the pre-pandemic year 2019 has increased by around 50 percent, and it is worth noting that the list of essential medicines which in 2021 had a budget of 24 million euros, now has 63 million euros, meaning that there is an increase of more than 150 percent.
We kindly request an increase in the number of health and pharmaceutical inspectors. Over 300 healthcare professionals, including medical specialists, nurses, technicians, and others, have been engaged in public institutions just this year.
The draft of the Health Insurance Law foresees thus 7 million euros investments in the HIS, now also in the Kosovo Assembly as well, and healthcare specialists have the highest salaries in the region, with bonuses up to 2000 euros. A full-time caregiver, on weekends for specialist physicians, receives 285 euros.
In less than a year, the number of new specialists will reach 588. As I mentioned earlier, we also included doctors from Presheva, Medvegja and Bujanoci, because of the discrimination they experience in their hometown.
Only this year, over 300 healthcare professionals have been engaged in public institutions, and it should be emphasized that all notifications of the departure of doctors and nurses, on the one hand, have a non-real inflation, while on the other hand, the vast majority of them leave from the private sector, not from the public sector.
Three new magnetic resonances for the hospital of Peja, for the Pediatric Clinic at UCCK, and for the hospital of Prizren. For 20 years there have been two, for three years also three others.
The Clinic of Oncology, Gynecology, Urology, Cardiovascular Surgery, Ophthalmology, Emergency Clinic, the operating block in Neurosurgery, Vascular Surgery, the operating block in Thoracic Surgery, and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry have been transformed and renovated. The new Orthopedics clinic has also been completed, which has the most modern facilities with four operating rooms. The renovation of the pediatric facility in Mitrovica has also been completed, as well as two departments at the Special Institute in Shtime, and the general renovation of the existing blood transfusion facility, the Regional Unit in Gjilan.
The hospital in Peja has been renovated and invested in, as well as the regional public health center in Prizren. 15 specialized ambulances have been renovated at the Regional Hospital of Gjakova. We are launching the first neonatal ambulance for the safe transport of newborns, and on December 25th, the toxicology laboratory is opening for the first time. Modern sterile filters are being installed in operating rooms, which will significantly reduce the number of in-hospital infections – a problem that has been plaguing our clinics for decades. 70 new drugs have been added to the essential drugs list, including drugs for assisted fertilization. Through the program for visits to mothers and children, we have enabled the connection of the service with the citizen, like never before due to the massiveness, as I mentioned earlier, 172 thousand home visits.
Moreover, besides women, the youth has also been in our focus. The number of young people employed through the Superpuna platform has doubled, and not only that. We also have, the Kosovo Generation Unlimited program in collaboration with UNICEF in Kosovo and the CSR network, which are together providing practical opportunities for over 3 thousand young people, around 60 percent of whom are women or girls, 12 percent are from the Serbian community, and 4 percent are from minority communities.
We are allocating more and more resources for innovation and technology for young people, for example, 574 thousand euros for high school students in the information and communication technology profile through training vouchers, and in 2023 we held coding classes in 22 municipalities, where over 20 thousand students from grades 1 to 12, in 350 schools, have completed around 30 thousand hours of coding, and this will continue in 2024 as well.
Based on the naming and model of Poland, we have started the program “Education for Security” in our schools, so that young people are informed, aware, and knowledgeable from first aid to protective literature, security, and organization in conditions of natural disasters or armed conflict.
One of the four areas where we have increased the budget the most against our will is defense and security. We would prefer that instead of spending on armaments and ammunition, we spend on other fields, but due to our aggressive northern neighbor who does not recognize us, denies war crimes, constantly provokes us, and on the other hand, due to new geopolitical tensions not only on our continent, we have tripled the military budget and since 2023 we have reached the quota of 2 percent of the gross domestic product, earlier it was not even 1 percent.
We have doubled the number of recruited soldiers, from 1971 young soldiers we have also gone through an additional recruitment process for a total of 300 new soldiers, and we have quadrupled the number of military personnel trained abroad, officers, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers, 3325 in total. We have removed this restriction on the number of soldiers in the KSF and also on the age, from 23 we have raised it to 25 years.
The implementation of the national program for comprehensive defense of the Republic of Kosovo has taken Finland and the Baltic countries, which also border aggressive and larger neighbors, as examples.
We greatly increase investments in the purchase of armaments. Between 2018 and 2020, less than four million were invested, whereas 239 million have been invested between 2021 and 2023. We have also purchased Bayraktar military drones from the Republic of Turkey on one side, and the Javelin anti-tank system from the United States of America.
We have inaugurated the State Cyber Security Training Center and have participated in Defender Europe 2021 and 2023, and we will also be a host in addition to being a participant in Defender Europe 2025.
We have cooperated with the United Kingdom Armed Forces in the Falkland Islands and Belize, and with the United States in Kuwait.
There has been a significant increase in business registration, esteemed deputies and dear citizens of our country, a total of 42,411 registered businesses, an increase of 17 percent. Furthermore, we have also seen an increase in consumer complaints that we have handled nearly seven times or precisely 568 percent, compared to the year 2019. So, citizens are believing as consumers that their complaint is addressed, so their number has almost increased sevenfold.
We have made a larger support package for citizens in the Balkans, facing inflation and the energy crisis, as a percentage of gross domestic product, 4.3 percent of gross domestic product, according to the World Bank we are the first in the region.
We have granted the subsidy of energy bills for over 208 thousand families, who have saved electricity during the winter season of 2022-2023, and the program for protecting vulnerable electricity consumers in Kosovo.
We have subsidized bills for all families and businesses to cope with competitiveness for businesses and the difficult time we are going through for citizens. And, today Kosovo has the lowest price of electricity, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, consecutive crises, which have disrupted the supply chain, the value chain. Kosovo has therefore managed to achieve continuous economic growth of over four percent, to have no new debt, and at the same time, to maintain a low price of electricity at just 7.4 euro cents per kilowatt-hour.
Honorable MPs, honorable citizens,
During this government, which has not yet completed four years, as we report on the quadrennial, we have achieved these successes and results, primarily thanking the people of Kosovo and state institutions and partners, our international European, American, British friends and allies, as well as from around the globe, from Japan to Canada, for which we are forever grateful and appreciative.
Also, I thank the Assembly of the Republic that has a record of laws approved in this mandate. If I am not mistaken, 307 laws have passed the second reading in the Assembly of the Republic, which is a record for our country for which I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you once again for your patience and contribution!
Prime Minister Kurti’s reply:
Dear Members of the Assembly,
The main focus of these four years of governance has been economic growth, which has averaged 6.36 percent of Gross Domestic Product on average over these three years. Never falling below four percent, of course real growth once inflation is removed. First, this. Second, in the framework of this economic growth, we also have doubling of exports and more than doubling of foreign direct investments. Third, we have a very high increase in revenues in the Kosovo budget from taxes. Specifically, this year there are over 3 billion tax revenues. In 2019, they were less than 1.9 billion. In the year 2020, which was a year of contraction, there were about 1.7 billion, while in the year 2021 when we came to power, there were nearly 2.2 billion. What does this mean? As of this year, we have tax revenues 60 percent more than in 2019, 76 percent more than in 2020 and 39 percent more than in the first year of our government.
Furthermore, we have doubled the number of young people employed and provided direct support for the employment of over 12 thousand women. The minimum wage is 350 euros and we have 18 thousand new job positions or formalization of existing job positions, compared to spring 2021. Meanwhile, public debt has fallen to only 17 percent of Gross Domestic Product, making it the lowest public debt of any country in Europe. The capital expenditures of the year 2023 have been the highest in the history of Kosovo. 561 million euros. Not only that, this year for the first three quarters of the year, we have 23 percent more capital expenditures compared to last year, that is, with ourselves.
Now I am going to tell you some of the things we were criticized for today here. The Government of the Republic of Kosovo cannot hold both the prosecutor’s office and the judiciary. The prosecution should clarify the case of our friend who drowned in the Prizren prison on November 5, 2016, Astrit Dehari. Yes, the prosecutor’s office has not been reformed. In the coming year, we will complete four years in government, but the KPC remains unchanged. At the top and beyond, with influence and authority, is Blerim Isufaj, who turned the murder of Dino Hasanaj into a suicide and the suicide of Ismet Sopa into a murder. This is a problem, honorable MP. The executive is one of the pillars of power. The other pillar is the legislature, that is, you, and we have a third pillar that is very important and it is justice. And we are stuck there. Both at the head of the Constitutional Court and at the head of the State Prosecutor’s Office are the same people. That they are not participating in public elections, that they would have found out then what the people think about them. That is why there is this stagnation. Therefore, we have proposed, we are committed, we have approved the start of vetting, but still these initiatives for justice system reform are ending up in the justice system that does not want to be reformed.
Furthermore, even the Sovereign Fund of the Republic of Kosovo would have been established by now if it depended on us. On December 26th, he completes one year detained at the Constitutional Court. It has been just over three weeks since the Sovereign Fund, approved by the Assembly of the Republic for which I thank you, has been stuck in the Constitutional Court. And we cannot start the Development Bank without the Sovereign Fund, because these are two successive steps of the developmental state.
Exactly why there is much more sovereignty, territorial integrity, legality, constitutionality in the north, there are terrorist actions now. Once when the parallel structures of Serbia controlled the north, they did not need terrorist attacks. Now that they don’t have it anymore, they commit terrorist actions. They used to have the four main buildings in four municipalities of police stations. Since November 5, 2022, when they collectively resigned, they no longer have those buildings, so now they throw the hand grenade on November 26 this year at the police station in Zveçan. So, you understand, they are throwing the hand grenade at the police station in Zveçan because it is the Police of the Republic of Kosovo. Where was the Serbian police commander who traveled from Belgrade to Pristina, why throw the hand grenade. He is throwing the hand grenade now because he is no longer there. Exactly because they lost the north, they are carrying out these terrorist attacks. Terrorism is powerlessness, it is not power, it is terror, it is fear, it is crime, it is murder, it is damage, but it is powerlessness in essence. Earlier, they haven’t had this powerlessness.
It all started on November 5, 2022, when four mayors of municipalities in the north, the deputies who were here from the Serbian List, prosecutors and judges in the north resigned collectively. One might wonder why resignation was given and they ran away both from here and from there? Because they weren’t here! When they were here, they did not resign. Since they were not here, they also resigned there. Now, on November 5, 2022, four hours were crucial in the afternoon when our police filled the vacuum created by the resignation of 547 Serbian police officers there. They believed that the system would implode, chaos and anarchy would begin, and there would be no one to govern. Do you remember what they were saying 2 years ago? It will become the Republic of KFOR. Why the Republic of KFOR instead of Republic of Kosovo. This was Serbia’s plan. For UNMIK and KFOR to take the north. Yes, there is our police. It could also be the army, but it is known how handicapped we are for this thing.
So why are there terrorist attacks in the north? There are terrorist attacks because the National Bank of Serbia branch in Kosovo and the Treasury Department in Leposavic have been closed. There are terrorist crimes and various attacks and sabotages because there are no more license plates or ID cards or illegal driver’s licenses of Serbia. Over 10 thousand of their citizens have either invalidated their driver’s license or received RKS license plates or both!
Next, in the four municipalities in the north, Municipal Cadastre offices, Kosovo Business Registration Agency offices, Pension offices at Employment offices, Labor Inspectorate offices, Kosovo Post offices, and at the two border points in Jarinje and in Bernjak have been opened. Electricity has started to be paid, the possibility of receiving invoices in non-banking financial institutions and in banks and in the Post Office of Kosovo has started, and we have also added 15 new base stations of the BTS transmission of Vala and their modernization for 4+ and 5G technology. The infrastructure and accompanying civil registration services have been extended in these four municipalities, with 260 businesses registered in 10 months. 28 houses have been built and over 200 are in progress and 63.3 kilometers of roads are asphalted and another 120 are in the process. Over 30 citizens have returned to their long-occupied homes and the assets of the attack in Banjska and the crime boss Milan Radoiçiq have been confiscated. 41 cases of cryptocurrencies having had electricity without paying have been uncovered. Other developments include: the establishment of a new border rapid intervention unit and within the border department, the law enforcement has been equipped with long-range weapons and the boat unit has been created within the border department because as Minister Liburn Aliu stated, Lake Radoniqi, Batllava, and Badovc are together only one-third of Ujman or Gazivoda as they are called in Serbia. Water is crucial and that’s why there are terrorist actions now, because there is no control.
We need to be vigilant, to anticipate as much as we can, but it is not easy to outsmart the terrorist’s imagination every time and everywhere. Also, this Ibër-Lepenc channel, we don’t possess a more significant infrastructure, but it exceeds 50 kilometers. If it had been 50 meters, or 5 kilometers or 500 meters, yes, but over 50 kilometers. Finally, now we also have the KSF, from Obiliq to the north and then our police together with KFOR to guard this channel which is vital for us. There is neither a tunnel, nor a bridge, nor an important antenna, let alone a road, like the Ibër-Lepenc channel. And now we are also asking for the help of international factors because these are new situations where our country has no previous experience, through no fault of its own. The fault of course lies with Serbia and Russia.
The other thing that I believe should be emphasized is that in this report that I have come to today, I am staying as long as possible, but allow me to counter-criticize your criticisms. Now that I am speaking, no deputy of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) is in the hall. Zero. Now that I am speaking, there are only four deputies of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK). Now that I am speaking, there are only three MPs from the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK). So the entire opposition, honorable MPs, tonight when the Prime Minister is reporting, not by his will but by the obligation to the opposition, there are only seven MPs. And you know what? None of the three leaders of the opposition political parties was present today, and not only today but also when we discussed the budget at first reading. As the Prime Minister, I presented the budget for the year 2025, none of them were there, on November 21 this year.
How come the three leaders of the opposition political parties, who are interested in the future, are campaigning, next year are the 2025 elections, and when it comes to either the 2025 budget or the four-year report to parliament, there is none here. But we have a fundamental difference. I, along with my colleagues, as I am also the party leader, have a fundamental difference with my colleagues who are leaders of other political parties: they prefer TV studios of oligarchs more, while I prefer the people’s house, the Assembly. This is the difference.
And finally, I know that you have very high expectations for us. I also thank you for this. To be sure, the expectations of the opposition, if you listen carefully today, have been greater than those of the majority. They are often even bigger than our own. We want more and more, higher and higher, but sometimes as fast as you want, way up there, we can’t get there. Therefore, we will need another mandate.
Thank you very much.
Last modified: December 6, 2024