Economists estimate that the development of the industry is characterized by structural limitations, while the president of the Chamber of Commerce says that entering the free energy market is causing problems for local producers.
Rezana Bozhlani
The turnover of the processing industry continues to register positive trends, but with a small impact on the increase in jobs and the size of the increase in imports. During August of this year, this sector has experienced an increase of 4.25% compared to the same month of the previous year. While other economic sectors, including the extractive industry, have had a higher growth, with 11.3%.
Economist Fidan Qerimi says that the manufacturing industry in Kosovo faces structural constraints.
"The manufacturing industry in Kosovo has seen development in recent years, but this performance is not characterized by continuous growth, but by fluctuations and structural limitations. We have had periods when turnover has increased and manufacturing activity has increased, but this has not always been accompanied by a sustainable expansion of production capacities and generation of employment in these sectors," stated Qerimi.
According to Qerimi, unequal competition is harming local producers.
"That is, as a free market, we have extraordinary problems as local producers, because we face unequal competition. Producers in other countries have much higher capacities, which enable them to produce at lower costs. This is an internal weakness, which we must reduce or even eliminate through economic and support policies, by supporting local producers in increasing productivity, increasing staff and improving the sustainability of supply," he assessed.
And the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Lulzim Rafuna, says that entering the free energy market has placed producers in a disadvantageous position.
"Despite the fact that we have requested a transitional period to make it easier for them to enter the free market, because entering the free market itself should have had a goal of finding electricity at a lower price than they had, but we know that the price is regulated by the market, and the moment they entered the free market, they were faced with a much higher price, and facing a higher price has put businesses in a disadvantageous position because their operating costs have increased," Rafuna emphasized.
The Chairman of the KCC considers it necessary to build a package that would help producers.
"This has been our request to the Kosovo government to build a package, because we are experiencing inflation just like the citizens of Kosovo, and for businesses as well, we have requested that they build a package with concrete measures that will help businesses," said Rafuna.
According to data from the Government of Kosovo, exports of manufacturing industry products increased from 398,5 million euros in 2020 to 736,9 million euros in 2022. But along with the increase in exports of products from this industry, the level of imports has also increased. For the same period, the government says that imports of these products increased from 3,6 billion to 5,24 billion euros.