About 18 municipalities will not benefit a single cent from the central level for new capital investment projects. This is what the Executive Director of the Association of Municipalities of Kosovo, Sazan Ibrahimi, told Radio Kosova. The American Chamber of Commerce considers that not investing in capital projects will affect the rate of economic growth. While experts in the economy say that this will have a wide impact on citizens and businesses.
The Executive Director of the Association of Kosovo Municipalities, Sazan Ibrahimi, told Radio Kosova that during the meeting with the country’s prime minister, one of the main topics of discussion was the establishment of Grant 4 which would create financial equality for the municipalities of Kosovo. He added that about 18 municipalities will not benefit from the central level this year.
“The mayors of the municipalities are asking for this grant to be established as soon as possible because in some cases they are thinking that there is financial inequality towards the municipalities for the development of capital projects, also in the Law on budget allocation for 2023 it is seen that about 18 municipalities will not benefit this year not one cent from the central level for new projects for capital investments”, said Ibrahimi.
Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Kosovo, Arian Zeka, told Radio Kosova that not investing in capital projects will inevitably affect the rate of economic growth.
“In the reports of international organizations, it has been said that the economic growth that has characterized Kosovo in recent years has been the result of consumption and therefore the impact of remittances from the diaspora, but at the same time also as a result of capital investments. If capital investments are one of the two most important pillars of the country, we automatically conclude that not making capital investments or not spending these funds that are foreseen for capital investments within a given budget year, will inevitably have an impact on the rate of economic growth”, said Zeka.
Economy professor, Fadil Osmani, considers that any money that does not circulate can be called mismanagement.
“We can freely say that any money that does not enter circulation cannot be called anything other than bad management, and this part of non-investment in capital means has left the money without entering circulation. I think that this has also influenced the rest of the citizens or the business community to get loans, which has resulted in the fact that in the first three months alone, there are about 70,000 customers who have gone to banks to get loans,” said Osmani.
According to the GAP Institute report, out of a total of approximately 811 million euros expected to be capital investments, 611 million euros or 75% are a continuation of previous projects and around 200 million euros are planned for new capital projects.
Of this amount for new projects, about 26%, or 51 million euros, is allocated for the central level, while the rest is for the local level. Of the 51 million euros of new capital investments at the central level this year, 22 million euros have been earmarked for specific projects in municipalities.