Prishtina, 29 April 2008
The Government of the Republic of Kosovo, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi, held its regular meeting today and discussed a chain of issues within the scope of its activities.
The Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi, assessed in his introduction that the security situation in the country is good and commended the work of the security bodies over the week.
Prime Minister Thaçi expressed gratitude, on behalf of the Government, for the recognition of Kosovo by Burkina Faso and praised the work of the Foreign Minister for his numerous contacts in terms of lobbying for the recognition of independent Kosovo.
As a sign of recognition of the engagement and sacrifice of the Kosovo’s Resistance Symbol, Kosovo’s Mandela, the well-known activist of the Albanian resistance, Adem Demaçi, the Government of Kosovo decided to allocate him a monthly pay, a car and a personal driver.
Prime Minister Thaçi said that Adem Demaçi enjoys the respect of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, but also of the democratic world.
The Government of Kosovo also approved the initiation of necessary procedures to declare the house, where Adem Demaçi acted during the period of 1998-99, as a KLA political representative, as a Museum House.
The Government also nominated Valton Beqiri for Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, and meanwhile reviewed the implementation of the decision to reduce expenditure and to relocation of institutions to public premises, and also discussed the course of the process of accreditation of the private universities in Kosovo.
The implementation of the decision of the Government of Kosovo to put a limitation to expenditures and to relocate Government’s institutions from private to public premises was also discussed by the Government.
The Minister of Public Services, Arsim Bajrami, then presented an overview of the current situation and the measures taken so far to implement the decision of the Government of Kosovo to limit expenditures and to relocate Government’s institutions from private houses to public premises.
So far, all the measures to functionalize all the public premises have been taken, of those that will serve as working environment for the state institutions of Kosovo. Minister Bajrami briefed the Government on the measures to reduce expenditure for fuel and telephones and this has resulted in a decrease of these expenditures by 52 %, compared to the same period from the last year. Other expenditures have marked a decrease, too. The Ministry of Public Services has also identified about 340 redundant vehicles and they will be sold through a public auction.
Prime Minister Thaçi has asked the Ministry to prepare the decision for selling in a public auction all the unnecessary cars of the Government for the next meeting.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology informed the meeting on the launch of procedures for the accreditation of private universities in Kosovo. Minister Enver Hoxhaj said that this is done aiming at improving quality of studies for the students. This process aims to be completed before the beginning of the new academic year for all the private education institutions.
Whereas, the University of Prishtina, will start accreditation procedures on 1 October this year. The accreditation procedures that are in harmony with the Kosovar laws and international education standards will be implemented in accordance with the decision by the Government of Kosovo. All the private institutions of higher education will undergo these procedures and will be assessed in terms of the level of accordance of their work with the law in Kosovo, and lastly this procedure will start at the second half of May and will conclude by 30th of June.
The Minister of Economy and Finance, Ahmet Shala presented the state of reforms in the economy of Kosovo. The minister assessed that the first steps of this reform have already been taken with the incentives in the fiscal policies and with stronger administrative measures taken against the informal economy. Talking about incentives in an effort to create a suitable environment for the business community, Minister Ahmet Shala said that the goal of the Government is to harmonize the level of taxes in Kosovo with the countries of the region and to protect businesses from the negligence on the side of state and tax institutions.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Lutfi Zharku, went through the activities of this ministry with regards to licensing enterprises, customs tariffs, functionalizing of business municipal centers and the continuous debate with the business community.
The Minister of Internal Affairs in the Government of Kosovo, Zenun Pajaziti, presented the Action Plan on Strategy for Reintegration of Expatriated Persons. The Strategy for Reintegration of Expatriated Persons has been adopted by the Government of Kosovo through its decision 4/275, date 10.10.2007. A working group has also been set up comprising of members from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Ministry of Local Government Administration and Ministry of Health, taken with drafting an Action Plan for the Implementation of the Strategy for Reintegration of Expatriated Persons, to make the cost assessment and prepare the necessary legislation for the implementation of the strategy. The Government approved this plan.