Partners

on: 16 Sep 2016

World Bank

Weak labour market outcomes remain the Achilles’ heel of Kosovo’s economy. Across the political aisle, among key stakeholders in academia, civil society, the private sector, and media, there is a broad consensus on the need to foster more dynamic rates of sustainable and inclusive growth to generate more-and, especially, more high-quality and better-paying-jobs for citizens and residents. However, there is much less of a consensus among the political elite and within society on the key pillars and core priorities of such a comprehensive socio-economic development strategy that is to guide economic policy-making in decades to come. In fact, some of the most striking debates circle around the role that the private sector (the most important generator of new jobs) can and should play in Kosovo’s economy. For Kosovo to become a modem, dynamic, and prosperous country with economic perspectives similar to those prevailing in other European countries, all important stakeholders will have to (i) debate and ultimately agree on core ingredients of an appropriate growth model; and (ii) anchor its key elements into the development programmes of successive governments formed by political parties that, today, are in government, opposition, or not yet established. Kosovo has few (functioning) fora in which to debate development priorities and, as such, pillars of its growth model-with very few exceptions. With its track record in high-quality research and the focus on key development challenges, Riinvest has earned, over the past 20 years, not only the credibility as an independent, professional stakeholder with a proven ability to produce high-quality, rigorous, yet accessible and policy-oriented research but also as a convening power capable of bringing together government and opposition politicians, academics, and representatives from the private sector, civil society, and international development partners to focus on, debate, and seek agreements on core challenges, including public policy-making, the business climate, economic informality, or corporate governance. In that, Riinvest is an indispensable research institute (a think tank in the best sense of the word), and it remains unrivalled---cementing its position at the very center of the debate on development challenges and the search for means to improve the situation for businesses and citizens alike. With declining marginal rates of development contribution from the “traditional” sources of growth, it becomes even more central for society as a whole to take fullest advantage of all opportunities to increase the productivity in key sectors of the economy and, as such, “endogenise” growth to make it more dynamic, more sustainable, and more inclusive in years and decades to come. And that, of course, makes Riinvest even more indispensable, in years and in decades to come! Congratulations on what has been achieved and courage for what lies ahead!

Yours sincerely
Jan-Peter Olters
Country Manager