The Sovereign Fund of the Republic of Kosova: Is there potential for successful management of state assets and how does it affect economic development, was the topic that was discussed in Tuesday’s Salon held yesterday. The discussion panel consisted of: Mentor Hyseni, PHD candidate in Finance & International Economics, Gent Nushi, Legal Expert in the commercial field of the GP of FSRK and Sejdi Rexhepi, university professor. Meanwhile, the salon was moderated by Visar Prebreza, editor of BIRN.
Mentor Hyseni said that the goal of the fund is the expansion of activities in public enterprises, the creation of synergy in these enterprises and economic development. Also, this fund foresees investments in the private sector, in certain areas, so the purpose of the fund is to make public enterprises profitable. This is done by making the concept of governance in these corporations. And this gives the opportunity to create new enterprises. The fund aims to develop the activity of an enterprise. The purpose of the fund is more to expand public activities, create synergy and economic development. This results in the reduction of the trade deficit that Kosova unfortunately has highly today. The fund also foresees investments in the private sector. It selects certain areas of investment in the private sector, in those areas that affect the economy. The enterprises will continue to function as separate with their boards, only the fund plays the role of the monitoring unit for the public enterprises. The Government of Kosovo will not be involved in the field of operations, but the fund will be reported to the Assembly of Kosovo”, he said. The functionalization of the fund is expected to happen two years after the approval of the law in the Assembly of Kosova.
Gent Nushi, legal expert in the commercial field, member of the FSRK working group, said that the Fund is the biggest economic reform that has ever been done in Kosova and that for this fund several different models have been taken from other countries. During the drafting of the law, we took models such as the Slovenian model, the Greek model, the Singapore model and the Irish model. The fund provides for the transfer of assets that are in the PAK.
Meanwhile, Sejdi Rexhepi, university professor, expressed skepticism regarding the operation of this Fund because, according to him, implementation in practice will be difficult.
He said that from what he has read, it can be seen that the management of public enterprises is not at the level it should be and that the government is taking steps in this direction. As he has seen the material in the concept document, it seems a very complex content. Implementation in practice will be faced with many difficulties. Transfering all responsibilities to one ethnic group is problematic, because it will create two levels of management. It will be very difficult for something that is envisioned to be realized in knowledge. Also, their reorganization will face many problems. His dilemmas were that this law also affects many other systemic laws. He also sees the transformation of wealth as quite problematic, categorizing it as a very long transition period.
“This salon was organized in cooperation with The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Prishtina Office (FES Kosovo)”