Industrial Park Illustrates Commitment to Private Sector

Drenas (also known as Gllogovc) is a thriving municipality in central Kosovo which covers around 290 km, or 2.66% of the country’s total land area, and comprises Drenas City and 41 other localities, including 36 villages. The municipality’s population is over 73,300. Drenas is surrounded by the Berisha, Kasmaq, Qyqavica, Golesh and Lipovica (Blinaja) mountains and is crossed by the Drenica and Verbica rivers, which provide irrigation for the municipality’s agricultural activities.

Support for private-sector development

The municipality was established before World War II as a special political and administrative district. It is well known for its mining and smeltering operations, and is the site of the Ferronikeli mining enterprise, which now employs 1,000 people. Drenas also has two quarries, in Korroticë e Epërme and Çikatova e Vjetër, which have reopened since the war. In 2004, Drenas demonstrated its support for the private sector by opening the Trade Centre in the centre of Drenas City. The municipal government coordinated the financing and also handled the construction and management of the project. The Trade Centre now contains 134 shops and offices for small businesses.

Promoting small and medium-sized enterprises

Drenas was singled out by the federal government as one of five municipalities to benefit from the Delta II project to promote local economic development over the period 2005 to 2007. Delta II was co-financed by the Open Society Institute of Budapest and by participating municipalities, with technical assistance provided by the World Bank. The project was implemented by the Riinvest Institute for Development Research, based in Prishtina. Delta II aimed to promote small and medium-sized enterprises, to upgrade municipal administration in drafting and implementing local economic development strategies, and to strengthen the partnership between the municipal government, the business community and local residents. The project laid the foundations for further private-sector growth in Drenas.

One of the municipality’s advantages as a business base is that it is well connected to other parts of the country by the FushëKosova railway, the highways between Peja and Prishtina and between Bushat (Komoran) and Peja, and other local and regional roads.

Today, the municipality’s economy is based mainly on agriculture and small trade-oriented enterprises, and Drenas has over 1,800 registered private businesses. Mayor Nexhat Demaku, Deputy Mayor Sherif Krasniqi and other local government leaders have launched programmes to greatly improve infrastructure, health and education services, the agriculture sector and industry throughout the municipality. Successes include a new irrigation system for local farms and the privatisation of Ferronikeli.

The municipality’s infrastructure includes paved main roads connecting major villages with Drenas City, modern water systems in main urban areas and in 11 villages, and modern sewer systems in main urban areas and in 15 villages. One key goal is to improve access to reliable power supplies, particularly in rural areas.

Innovative industrial park serves as ideal base for businesses

To promote local and foreign investment in its private sector, Drenas launched an industrial park in 2005. Strategically located in the village of Lower Koretica, just 17 km from the highway connecting Prishtina and Peja, the park covers 24 hectares and is designed to be an ideal location for local and foreign production enterprises. Building land of 1,000 sq m, 3000 sq m and 6,000 sq m is available.

The Drenas Industrial Park provides a number of world-class services to businesses located there, including legal support for company registration; comprehensive assistance during the start-up phase; assistance with contractual issues involving purchasing property in the park; support during construction; assistance in finding local partners and workers; assistance in dealing with transport, customs, accounting, fiscal, juridical and technical issues; and preferential access to local distribution networks, processed products and raw materials.

Kosovo’s Ministry of Trade and Investment is participating in the park’s development through providing roads, sidewalks, sewer and drainage systems, electricity and telephone networks, and access to reliable water, heating and gas systems. As Kosovo’s Deputy Prime Minister, Mimoza Kusari-Lila, explains, “Drenas’s business park is a good example of Kosovo’s support for business development. Last year we made efforts to speed things up in the park by streamlining the process of establishing businesses there, and we are pleased to see the progress being made. We expect that successful production enterprises operating in the Drenas Industrial Park will help reduce Kosovo’s trade deficit, reduce unemployment and serve as a successful model which will be applied by other municipalities.”

In March this year, the Small and Medium Enterprise Support Agency (SMESA), which operates under Kosovo’s Ministry of Trade and Industry, signed a contract designed to benefit businesses operating in Drenas Industrial Park. The park is now home to 33 companies and around 39 other businesses have applied to open facilities there, while four businesses already operating in the park have received permission to expand. The industrial park illustrates the municipality’s commitment to supporting private-sector development and foreign investment in Drenas.