UN Radio

Foreign Investments

By Birol Urcan

Hello and welcome you are listening to UNMIK On air

Johannes Sittard the Chairman of Alferon International Mineral Resources company, is the man who has invested 30 million euro in Kosovo, the biggest investment since World War II.

And as the new owner he will invest 20 million more to revitalize the Ferronikeli plant that he has just bought.

The Ferronikeli plant in Glogovac is one of Europe’s largest nickel processing mines/plants, and definitely the biggest SOE so far privatized in Kosovo.

In a first meeting with workers, grey haired Sittard seemed very confident of his investment.

“I see from the economical point and from the investment point no risk, because we after refurbishing will have very a great plant here, and I think the operation will be very competitive to supply the world market with Ferronikel”

Experts claim that when Ferro! Nikeli is fully operational, it will not only employ at least 1,000 workers directly, but there will be an additional 2,000 to 3,000 related jobs created for the regional or wider economy.

Joachim Rucker Head of Pillar IV was also at the meeting:

“This is only a start it is good start, “

“And of course the international investor community watches this very closely, how does it actually play on the ground if you invest in Kosovo how quickly can you come to a production how is the political circumstances I think there it needs to be strong and good message to international investors”

To further attract foreign investment the SRSG signed in July, an administrative order founding the Agency for attracting foreign investors, which functions within the ministry of Trade and Industry.

Ejup Fejza was appointed as the Chief of this Agency in September of this year.

“In a sense of fully operating, this agency has not yet started to function as it needs to.

We have a small staff which was inherited from the office for investment promotion which functions within this Ministry, but we still did not get properly qualified staff, and we are now selecting the best staff to be employed in this Agency”

The Agency will serve also as an export promoter for Kosovo products.

But the main task for the Agency will be to bring in foreign investors, a task which, agency official claim, will not be easy.

“Many of the economic sectors of Kosovo are very competitive for the region.

We have to use this advantage, but also at the same time we have to use our Diaspora, that lives abroad, as promoters, so or they come themselves and invest in Kosovo, or they convince other investors to do so”

As we said at the beginning most probably it is going to need a lot of work to convince investors to enter into a new developing- free - market economy like Kosovo.

But there are good opportunities in Kosovo and Kosovo very much needs investment to propel it along the road to European integration.

The work of the new Investment Agency, UNMIK, the European Union and most importantly the work of the people of Kosovo, will secure a good future for the economy of Kosovo.

This was all for today, thank you for listening and have a good day.