Shahini: People are jobless, and the government is without strategy; life in Kosovo is becoming increasingly difficult

The President of the Alliance of Kosovo Business, Agim Shahini, states that Kosovo faces a serious unemployment problem and ranks among the poorest countries in Europe, right after Ukraine. On the other hand, he tells Kosovo Online that the government in Pristina has no strategy to combat poverty or to develop the economy and industry.

Shahini notes that back in June, the Alliance of Kosovo Business published a study indicating that Kosovo is experiencing its greatest economic crisis, with the daily lives of citizens becoming increasingly difficult. He adds that the latest World Bank report confirms these claims.

“We are the poorest country in Europe, right after Ukraine, which is at war. Our GDP per capita is the lowest, indicating that we are genuinely impoverished. Unemployment is also quite high. According to the World Bank report, 37 percent of citizens are actively working, meaning that even 63 percent of those who want to work cannot find a job,” he adds.

When it comes to employment opportunities, Shahini emphasizes that young people find work the quickest in the IT sector, while the situation is nearly the same in all other professions.

“In construction, workers are in demand every day, but there are none, either because wages are too low or because workers lack the necessary qualifications. The situation is similar in healthcare. Many people complete their studies, only to then leave the country. Kosovo lacks a strategy for fighting poverty and for developing the economy and industry,” he says.

He adds that the core issue with unemployment is that the Government of Kosovo doesn’t understand what the priority for Kosovo’s development should be.

“In a strategy, a vision is created, and then a plan is laid out to achieve this vision for economic development. We at the Business Alliance believe that the government has wasted precious time focusing on dialogue with Serbia, leaving the struggling economy on the sidelines. Although we have positive growth, the highest in the Balkans, our development rate is still very low. We face significant poverty, underdevelopment, and many people dissatisfied with life in Kosovo, regardless of whether they are Albanian, Serbian, or other Kosovo residents,” Shahini says.

He points out that according to the Kosovo Business Alliance’s research, about 55,000 people have gained employment in the past four years, while 43 companies have been opened.

“But officially, 6,700 companies have closed, and it is estimated that more than 18,000 companies are off the labor market. This is due to the complex procedure for closing companies. People leave their companies inactive but are unable to complete the paperwork for closure. They have left debts they couldn’t settle because they were no longer on the labor market,” he concludes.

Shahini stresses that despite positive growth, Kosovo lacks foreign investments and, consequently, development and new jobs.

“For a decent standard of living, we need growth of over eight percent, but it is under four percent. The World Bank and other international organizations continuously confirm that we at the Business Alliance are correct. We would like the government to be right. But recently, the finance minister came out and said unemployment was four percent, and five days later, he claimed it was 10.6 percent. Now, the data shows it is over 30 percent. There are many people missing from the statistics, many unemployed, and many who have lost hope of ever finding a job, and they are not recorded anywhere,” he says.