Kosovo: UN to set up privatization agency to help boost economy

In a bid to support the emergence of a new economy in Kosovo, the head of the United Nations mission in the province today announced plans to create a new body to manage the process of privatization.

"To get a functioning economy Kosovo needs investment," Michael Steiner, who heads the UN Interim Administration Mission (UNMIK), said in an address to the University of Pristina. "And to get investment Kosovo needs to privatize."

While stressing that there are no "quick fixes" for Kosovo's economy, Steiner said that a Kosovo Trust Agency would be established to oversee the process of privatisation.

The Agency will be run by a Board of Directors comprised of three UNMIK and three Kosovar representatives - including at least two from the government and at least one representing the Serb community.

"This process will take Kosovo out of the straightjacket that it has been bound in for so long," Mr. Steiner said. "It will create the conditions for the private investor and as the market begins to function new jobs will emerge."