Dear Government Cabinet members,
Dear citizens of the Republic,
Welcome to the second meeting this week, and the 103rd meeting of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, in which we will address a very important issue, the Draft Law on Budget Appropriations for the Budget of the Republic of Kosovo 2023.
Last year was the most successful year in the history of our state in terms of revenues and economic growth. This year, despite the global challenges and crises, the positive trend continued, and it enabled us to have a consolidation of public finances. This places us on a good trajectory for the next fiscal year, and as a result we have a very positive projection from the Ministry of Finance, Labor and Transfers.
The budget for 2023 will be 3 billion and 212 million Euros, while the budget revenues will reach the amount of 2 billion and 884 million Euros. We have allocated 745 million Euros in the “Wages and Allowances” category, 493 million Euros in the “Goods and Services” category, 1 billion and 98 million Euros in “Subsidies and Transfers” category, and 811 million Euros in “Capital Expenditures” category.
In terms of specific projects, i.e. those that reflect our Government Program:
We have added 240 new positions for the inspectorates. This means more labor inspectors to protect workers’ rights, more health inspectors to ensure the quality of services, more market inspectors to ensure consumer protection, and more tax inspectors to ensure the collection of taxes that would enable the provision of better public services.
Health, education, defense and agriculture continues to be our priority.
We have allocated 296 million Euros for the health sector at the central and local level. Out of this amount, 60 million Euros are for the essential medicines, to ensure that hospitals and family medicine centers are well supplied to provide services to citizens. We have also given importance to the construction of health infrastructure, increasing the relevant budget. We have accompanied the increase in the health infrastructure budget with the increase in the number of medical staff, where we have added 400 positions: 100 at the central level and 300 at the local level.
In line with our promise for early childhood development, we have continued the budget line for the construction of nurseries, where for this year we have allocated budget for construction of 11 nurseries. Just like in health sector, we have followed the investments in infrastructure with the increase of human capacities. We have added 243 new staff positions so that all the nurseries built so far are operational, and we have also fulfilled our promise of 500 assistants for children with disabilities.
And at this time when the international food prices are continuing to rise, besides the additional support that we gave to our farmers in 2022, we have increased the budget for 2023, reaching the figure of 87 million Euros for the first time, which together with the support from the external funds, we expect to exceed the amount of 100 million Euros, which was also our promise.
In the current context, the support in the security and defense sector becomes even more important. Therefore, we have added 300 new positions for the Police, and we have increased the budget for the purchase of modern weaponry for our army.
We started with the allowances for maternity and children that we have promised at a time when everyone was skeptical that they could be realized, however, in 2023 we are fulfilling our promise by including all children under the age of 16 in the allowance scheme. For this purpose, we have allocated a budget in the amount of 60 million euros.
The return of the state customs terminals was also one of our promises, the outcome of which we have started last year with the opening of the state customs terminal in Mitrovica in the premises of Trepça public enterprise, and this year with the state customs terminal in Durrës and in Podujeva. We will continue in the same way with the terminal at Pristina Airport and in Vermica, as well as with other terminals, for the functionalization of which we have allocated 6 million Euros.
We have allocated budget for the completion of the roads that are already for several years in process, as well as we have added the budget to start the widening of the Pristina-Peja road, as well as for the construction of Prizren-Tetovo road.
Now that we have completed the feasibility study for affordable housing, we have foreseen to start the work next year, and at the same time we have started the procedures to secure the necessary financing from international financial institutions.
We will also continue supporting public enterprises, in their return to profitability, so that they become contributors to economic development, and this is why we have again allocated 40 million Euros for investments in these enterprises.
After the allocation of 10 million Euros for the current year, we have allocated additional 15 million Euros for the state reserves for 2023 in order to continue filling/adding the reserves.
With the support that we received from the European Union yesterday, now we will have another 75 million Euros that will go to support citizens to overcome the energy crisis. This is in addition to the many projects in the energy sector that will start soon, such as the expansion of central heating, the solar park in KEK, and the batteries with MCC.
The focus of budget investment this year in the foreign policy, will be on Public Diplomacy, Economic Diplomacy and emigration.
There are also many other projects and initiatives that are in this budget, but there are also many challenges. However, together, through the implementation of the Government Program, and the appropriate execution of this budget, we should facilitate the lives of citizens, develop the economy, and increase employment.
Now I also invite Minister Murati, the Minister of Finance, Labor and Transfers, to provide us other details about the Draft Law on Budget Appropriations for the Budget of the Republic of Kosovo for 2023.
Last modified: November 2, 2022