Today was held the conference “”Energy Supply for Manufacturing Sector in Kosovo: Going Green?”, this conference was organized in cooperation with USAID’s EMPOWER Private Sector Project in partnership with SIDA and the Ministry of Economic Development.
One of the main factors of the country’s economic development and the strengthening of the production sector is the security of electricity supply. Given that the development of a sustainable energy system takes time, the right decisions on the future of the energy sector should be taken much earlier.
Consequently, the conference discussed renewable energy as a way of solving the problem of energy supply for the manufacturing sector. This conference also addressed ways to solve the energy supply problem in the private sector with a focus on the manufacturing sector.
The participants of this conference were the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Mr. Ramush Haradinaj, Mr. Valdrin Lluka – Minister of Economic Development, Mr.Luigi Brusa – Head of the Cooperation Section – at the EU Office in Kosovo, Mr.Anden Jusic – Energy Sector, Head Office – at EBRD as well as Astrit Shabani – President of Kosovo Manufacturing Club.
The conference was opened by the Executive Director of the Kosovo Manufacturing Club, Mr. Astrit Panxha, who estimated that the situation is critical. Mr. Panxha noted that “According to various analyzes it turns out that the annual losses of the domestic producers, due to power outages or poor quality of energy are around 300 million euros. This means that all the profit that local producers have gain from export is spend to cover electricity losses. Perhaps this is one of the indicators why we have this negative trade balance. Producers rather than investing 300 million euros in production and become more competitive, they have to cover all electricity losses with that capital.”
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Mr.Ramush Haradinaj, in his speech emphasized the commitment of the Government to further develop and strengthen the private sector in Kosovo. He claimed that “Kosovo has an emergency to increase renewable generation capacities and maintain the existing ones. He assured that the Government will be a permanent partner for the production sector in terms of energy supply and thus the issue of electricity supply will be a priority and will be handled with care.”
Part of the panel was also the Minister of Economic Development, Mr. Valdrin Lluka. He expressed readiness to improve the current situation and announced that next year the law on energy efficiency will be approved. Part of this law, stated by Minister Lluka, will also be the establishment of the Fund for Energy Efficiency. According to Mr.Lluka what is important for the Energy Efficiency Fund is that “Ministry of Economic Development has a commitment from the European Commission of 10 million euros. They have also budgeted from their funds around 2 million and they have interest from donors that this initial fund to be up to 20 to 30 million euros. Minister Lluka, noted that the Fund will be ready by the middle of next year and will be sustainable. He also expressed readiness for cooperation with local banks to develop and finance renewable energy.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Luigi Brusa – Head of the Cooperation Section from the EU office in Kosovo declared that Kosovo is on the right path to the creation of the Sustainable Energy Strategy, but stressed the need for transparency along this path. He stated that “ EU has the target of 20% renewable energy and Kosovo as a contracting party has the obligation to achieve 25% renewable energy as of 2020.”
Mr. Anes Jusic, EBRD representative, indicated that the challenges in this process are great, but the plans and ideas in support of the private sector are concrete and they will lead to investments in the energy efficiency in the country. He stressed that the government should give clear signals of taking charge in of a part of the investments.
The conference was closed with a round of questions and comments from business representatives, where they had the opportunity to express their concerns on the development of their business activities, stressing that the lack of electricity supply continues to be one of the main barriers for businesses in Kosovo. Other challenges mentioned were the lack of investment in sustainable energy, the need for the reduction of tariffs and the need to overcome energy losses. They also expressed their willingness to invest more in renewable energy in the future.