The Executive Director of the Manufacturing Club, Astrit Panxha was part of the discussion panel “Increasing the Export Competitiveness of Kosovo SMEs through Diverse Financial Products” organized by USAID Kosovo Compete Activity, the Kosovo Manufacturing Club, and the American Chamber of Commerce in Kosovo.
During his address, the director of the Manufacturing Club showed that despite the pandemic during 2020, Kosovo companies managed to increase exports where in the end we had exports of 460 million euros. “This increase occurred due to many factors, but one of them was the failure of the production chain with Asia where some of our companies took advantage of this opportunity very well. Following the growth trend for the first quarter of 2021, we expect exports to reach 650 million euros by the end of the year. Or a 40 percent increase. But to have growth in this economic sector, there must be support with grants but also other ways of financing.”
During the meeting they discussed the possibility of financial support for Kosovo SMEs oriented towards export in the industries of wood processing, ICT and food processing. Existing examples of similar initiatives were presented and exchanged experiences, but also donor coordination on the topic and possible identification of synchronized actions was disused.