On Wednesday, November 24, 2021, GERMIN organized the third lecture With the Kosovar diaspora from Switzerland. This meeting is part of a series of activities Within the Greenback 2.0 project, by the World Bank in cooperation with the Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo and funded by the Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs.

The lecture focused on remittances and their role as guides for the socio-economic development of Kosovo. Switzerland is one of the main sources of remittances for Kosovo.

The meeting was moderated by Mrs. Edlira Dashi, who presented a brief introduction to the topic, project and panelists, as well as a brief explanation of remittances. where he showed more about the importance of remittances, as well as some of the statistics from world Bank, which show the importance of remittances for the economic stability of Kosovo.

Finance expert at the Central Bank of Kosovo, Mr. Bejtush Kiçmari, spoke about various studies on remittances in Kosovo and how their growth is projected in the coming years. He shared statistics on how diaspora money spent in Kosovo annually is greater than the amount of Kosovo’s annual budget. He also spoke about economic trends in Kosovo. He also stressed that remittances are calculated only those that come through transaction agencies, where it is known that informal ways are still emphasized.

Mr. Osman Osmani, co-founder of the association Prointegra in Switzerland, mainly mention some of the main points of importance of remittances, but I also suggest on what it would be necessary to create policies that would help to channel the remittances that lead towards the development of the mother country. He also stressed the importance of organizing migrants and their funds in Kosovo.

During the meeting you were interested in the audience who told about their experiences in terms of deliveries, as well as the challenges they have in this regard, both in legal terms and in practice.