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44 I EBRD 2022 bne June 2022
“This year [growth] may be slowing down a bit due to the war and inflation, but we see the trend continuing in
Q1. It is driven mainly by exports,
as local companies are trying to fill
in the void created by supply chain disruptions at global level,” Murati said.
Neil Taylor, the EBRD’s head of Kosovo, told the same panel that this year “we are looking at a very positive growth dynamic, supported not least by the diaspora, but also the increase in exports of goods, light manufacturing.”
Both Murati and Taylor also referenced Kosovo’s growing IT and outsourc-
ing sector. “ICT is really flourishing.
Kosovo has an average age of 30, and many people are fluent in English or German. It’s a great place to invest and take advantage of nearshoring oppor- tunities from the EU,” said Taylor.
Elaborating on this on the sidelines of the conference, Murati told bne IntelliNews: "for us the main exports and the growth is coming from the ICT sector but also from the old fashioned manufacturing, because a lot of [companies] are nearshor- ing given the higher logistical costs.
“We see this usually in the textile industry but also in furniture as well,” he added. “Mostly it’s the labour
intensive industries, where you have
a lot of people involved. Considering we are near the European Union but
it costs less to produce in Kosovo I think it seems a very good opportunity for companies to nearshore near
to their home countries.”
Murati says this trend started with
the coronavirus pandemic and the disruptions to supply chains during the initial lockdowns in spring 2020. “What followed was a bottleneck of logistics, shipments and transporta- tion which pushed the prices higher. But [there is] also security of supply and predictability; being nearer and in continental Europe has its advantages.”
Kosovo is fifth in the world for coal reserves, Murati told the panel.
The country produces most of its electricity from two ageing power plants, Kosova A and Kosova B.
“Kosovo never introduced any infrastructure for gas, and the question is whether it will be
possible go straight from coal to renewable energy without gas as [an] intermediate step,” said Lundsgaard – and if so, whether other countries might follow Kosovo’s example.
Kosovo faces a growing need for energy, as its economy as a whole
is forecast to be one of the fastest growing in the emerging Europe region this year, with export-oriented manufacturing an important part
of its growth in 2021 and 2022.
“Local companies [are] trying to fill the void created by supply chain disruptions at global level, which created oppor- tunities at the manufacturing sector.
All this requires energy,” said Murati.
However, the energy transition is not simply a matter of expediency. “It’s important to make this transition, not because of national security, to become energy independent, [but because]
we [are] committed to EU values and the decarbonisation agenda. We
Coal-dependent Kosovo prepares for leap to renewables
Clare Nuttall in Marrakesh
Kosovo, which relies heavily on coal power generation, is preparing to leapfrog entirely over natural gas power, straight to renewable energy.
Despite being extremely rich in lignite, Kosovo aims to switch to renewable energy and eventually achieve a
full decarbonisation of its energy sector, according to plans outlined
by Minister of Finance, Labour and Transfers Hekuran Murati and Minister
www.bne.eu
of Economy Artane Rizvanolli at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) annual meeting in Marrakesh on May 10.
To give an idea of the scale of the switch, according to Jens Lundsgaard, the EBRD board director for Denmark, Lithuania, Ireland and Kosovo,
relative to its size, Kosovo has the largest coal reserves on earth, and
in absolute terms it has among the largest coal reserves in Europe. Overall,