"American investors are interested in a special economic zone in Kosovo where they could find minimal infrastructural conditions to expand their investment. The institutions of Kosovo will have to not neglect this area and bring it to life", says the executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce, Arian Zeka, in an interview for Radio Free Europe.
Zeka also talks about the meetings they held with the delegation from Iowa and the United States of America who were visiting Kosovo.
Radio Free Europe: Mr. Zeka, the Government of Kosovo has initiated the establishment of the American Special Economic Zone. What does this area mean, if you can explain?
Arian Zeka: This will be the answer to the many requests that American investors often have in the event that they decide to come and invest in Kosovo, is there any ready space where they can settle and have the minimum infrastructure conditions to then start either with the construction of any object in which they intend to exercise their business activity.
Not far from this week, we also had a meeting at the Ministry of Finance with some of the businesses that are part of the delegation from Iowa, and this was the question they had, is there something ready where they can start the activity on the day first.
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Radio Free Europe: Do you expect this special American economic zone to be created?
Arian Zeka: If we take as an example a reference from 2013 when the Law on Economic Zones was approved and we see that the law has never been implemented now five years, then this more rightly prompts our skepticism than even this time the American special economic zone it may never come to life. I believe that what is a remark about this government from the side of the business community is the lack of transparency.
We have received information about the establishment of this zone from our sources within the government, but not officially. We are talking 19 years after the liberation of the country where one would expect that there will be greater communication at the official level between the public and private sectors, we are faced with a lack of transparency and here I blame the Prime Minister's Office and the Kosovo Agency for supporting investments and companies who had been working on the concept document for a long time but had never shared it with the public, I am not just saying the American Chamber here, but he also mentioned other organizations that would be interested in commenting on a such an important document.
Radio Free Europe: A delegation from Iowa of the United States of America is staying in Kosovo, you have met with this delegation, so what is the interest in this case for cooperation and deepening of American investments in Kosovo?
Arian Zeka: We have been part of the arrangement of their visit to Kosovo, we have defined several meetings within their general agenda. It is about a delegation of over 55 people, each from an economic, political, military point of view. The delegation was led by three people such as the representative of the Senate of the state of Iowa Zach Nunn, the commander of the National Guard of Iowa Major General Timothy Orr, and the director of the organization for the foundation of relations with other states like sister Kim Heidemann.
The cooperation between Kosovo started years ago and was concretized with the partnership agreement for a sister state signed between the former president Atfete Jahjaga and the former governor of the state of Iowa.
Initially, the cooperation started at the military level between the national guard of the state of Iowa and the Kosovo Security Force, but in recent years and after the signing of the partnership agreement, the cooperation has also been extended to other areas, such as in business, education and now Finally, there are also initiatives to increase cooperation in sports.
The American Chamber of Kosovo has had several delegations in the state of Iowa, we have a partnership with what is known there as the largest business association that represents 15 thousand communities and that they are part of this delegation and we had the opportunity to show you a different Kosovo from what they can perceive. We visited different companies such as pharmaceutical companies, companies that produce plastic products, an industry that is growing in Kosovo, so you were presented with something that they did not expect to see in Kosovo.
So, the idea is to have missions that we call door-knocking, door-opening, to exchange contacts and in the following months to have a greater, more concrete cooperation that will bring concrete results.
Radio Free Europe: In which sectors in Kosovo can American investments be extended and how much interest is there in coming to Kosovo?
Arian Zeka: We at the American Chamber in Kosovo have always promoted the energy and mining sector as a sector that is based on our natural resources, then there is the information technology sector that can be developed even further, then there is agriculture.
These are the three sectors that we promote to foreign investors, but of course, depending on the business they specialize in, foreign investors can also choose other sectors.
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It is important that the state should offer an attractive legal framework, which I believe we have, but on the other hand, the practical implementation of all legal provisions is also lacking, it is not only a matter of bureaucracy combined with corrupt actions, which then makes it impossible to we have greater results in attracting foreign investors.
The state should work on promoting a national brand. It is important to do business on a global level today to build these national brands so that investors regardless of which country or continent come to know about other countries where they can invest.
It is a sin that despite the positive developments in terms of the harmonization of our legislation with that of the EU, Kosovo fails to promote these positive aspects and the negative image of our country still dominates.
Again, a criticism of the Agency for the promotion of enterprises and investments, which has done little in this regard.
Free Evopa Radio: Representatives of international financial mechanisms are continuously drawing attention to the high level of corruption in Kosovo. How much does this level of corruption damage businesses in the country?
Arian Zeka: Recently, the American Chamber of Kosovo has published a study on the perception of businesses about corruption in Kosovo and as always in such studies it results that the perception of corruption is quite high, but on the other hand there is a discrepancy in terms of the real presence of corruption.
There are somewhere over 80 percent of the surveyed businesses who say that they believe that there is corruption, but on the other hand, there are very few of them who say that they have faced it.
However, perception as a brick is a very important indicator that international and domestic investors take into account. No investor, no company would want to invest their finances in a place where there is risk in terms of the return on that investment.
Little results have been shown in the fight against corruption. Businesses believe that not enough work is done by the prosecution and the judicial system, which on the other hand is reported to be corrupt.
Radio Free Europe: Kosovo continues to have a low level of export to countries in the region and beyond. What is preventing Kosovar producers from penetrating more into the European markets with their products?
Arian Zeka: I believe that the first is quality infrastructure. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, not only in this mandate of the government, but also in the past, has done little, despite the fact that it had the support of international organizations.
It was necessary before the entry of the Stabilization Association agreement, we have said as the American Chamber that at the moment of entry into force of this agreement, this will open the borders for local products, but a large part of them during export efforts to the EU will not face tariff barriers this time, but the need to embrace international quality standards that guarantee that a certain product, whether food or other, meets the minimum required standards.
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This is where institutional efforts should be focused, this is where businesses need the hand of the state. There are no other barriers for the export of our products to the European markets, but the obstacles are of this nature.
On the other hand, it must be accepted that the production capacity of Kosovar businesses is quite limited, in many cases they barely meet local needs, let alone having the capacity to meet external needs.
