Serbia is investing in 10 Kosovo Serb municipalities: factories, farms, plants…

„I came to tell you what it is that we will specifically do and what I brought to our people in Kosovo and Metohija. We came with a comprehensive investment plan for 10 Serbian municipalities. All ten – including the four in the north of Kosovo – Leposavic and Zvecan and Zubin Potok and North Mitrovica, as well as Novo Brdo, Gracanica, Ranilug, Partes, Klokot, and Strpce. For every place where Serbs are the majority, but also all Serbs wherever they live and where they are in a huge minority,“ the Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said during his visit of north Kosovo last week. He also mentioned some of the figures of the announced investments. The Belgrade-based Tanjug news agency reported on the details of the investment plan. According to the data from the Kosovo Office, the announced investments in various projects in Kosovo amount to, at a minimum, over €70 million. The amount was not specified for a certain part of the project, while plans for new projects have also been announced. Allocations for salaries and allowances for employees of the remaining Serbian institutions in Kosovo currently amount to €71 million. The Serbian President announced an increase in this amount also.

Tanjug reported on the details of the investments, citing the Kosovo Office as saying that they have „elaborated assessments of economic and social needs“ in Serb municipalities, and that help for the Serbian people will soon be intensified, based on, as the Kosovo Office emphasized – „real and growing state possibilities“. Some of the announced investments include:

• €10 million for the Clinical Hospital Center North Mitrovica;
• €800,000 for achieving sustainability of Lola FOT in Lesak;
• €13 million for a pellet factory in Leposavic;
• the establishment of food production at the Agricultural School in Lesak – from its own livestock, fruit and vegetable production;
• the renewal of Petoletka production;
• a factory of batteries and accumulators within the Trepca complex that would employ between 250 and 300 workers;
• €825,000 to launch the production of laminated furniture in the „Simpo“ plant (Zubin Potok);
• a project for a fruit and vegetable processing plant (Zubin Potok);
• an examination of the possibility for business networking at the “Javor” textile factory for sustainable production placement;
• the construction of a fish processing plant (Zubin Potok);
• an IT Center in North Mitrovica;
• an accompanying individual/ family commercial facility complex at the tourist-cultural-historical site of „Rajska Banja“ in Banjska;
• €25 million for the settlement „Sun Valley“ in Zvecan;
• a farm for breeding 10,000 laying hens (Gracanica);
• encouraging ethno-tourism and increasing the capacity of the existing slaughtering industry in Gracanica;
• a plastic haberdashery factory (Ranilug);
• a factory for the production of medical supplies in cooperation with private investors from central Serbia (Ranilug);
• a farm for breeding 300 pigs (Ranilug);
• a project for a new line for the processing of raw food materials within the soup kitchen system (Novo Brdo);
• a farm for breeding 300 head of cattle and tourism content (Novo Brdo);
• a 300-ton freezer truck (Klokot);
• an investment in individual tourist offers (Klokot);
• an investment in the processing of potatoes (Klokot);
• a broiler farm (Partes);
• a plant for pasteurization – processing and packaging of vegetables (Partes);
• a slaughterhouse (Partes);
• a 300-ton freezer truck and higher stage processing of berries (Strpce);
• a bakery (Strpce);
• 12 million dinars for the completion of works on the Gazivode dam in Zubin Potok;
• the construction of three kilometers of the Vracar-Rvatska road;
• the construction of a road through Drena, leading to Banje;
• land acquisition in all 10 municipalities;
• a sports hall in North Mitrovica;
• €6 million for the completion of the regional water supply system for Zubin Potok, Zvecan and North Mitrovica;
• €2 million for the Clinical Hospital Center in Gracanica;
• €1.2 million for the boarding facilities of the Agricultural School in Leposavic and Lesak.

The Serbian mayors in Kosovo have also received an instruction from President Vucic to prepare other projects which will improve the lives of Kosovo Serbs and open up new jobs, Tanjug also reported.

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– in the village of Prekovce, at the end of April, a pig farm was opened for the needs of the soup kitchens with the support of the humanitarian organization “Solidarity for Kosovo”, which invested  €150,000. This was the fifth farm that has been opened, the President of the NGO, „Mother of the Nine Jugoviches”, which manages the soup kitchens in Kosovo, explained at the time.

– a plant for the pasteurization of fruits and vegetables, which functions within the NGO „Mother of the Nine Jugoviches“, was opened in September 2016. The construction of the plant was financed by „Solidarity for Kosovo“ with a donation of €110,000 and the Kosovo Office with €30,000.

– works on the regional water supply for the North of Kosovo started in 2013, and the end of the construction was announced for September 2016.

– the completion of works on the returnee settlement „Sun Valley“ was originally announced for the end of 2017. The settlement, according to the previous announcements, was planned to contain between 225 and 300 housing units for about 1500 inhabitants. According to the latest announcements by President Vucic last Sunday in Zvecan, the „Sun Valley“ will be completed by Vidovdan next year when 350 families will be able to move in.

– The construction of a battery factory in the north of Kosovo was announced by the President of Serbia in 2016, when he visited Kosovo as the Serbian Prime Minister.

– The Center for Career Development with „15 working units“ was opened in North Mitrovica last year. The Serbian Minister of Education, Mladen Sarcevic, called this center a „mini-technology park“ which will be expanded by „more than 500 square meters“. The head of the Kosovo Office Marko Djuric, who also attended the opening ceremony, said that it was a „big and important day for North Mitrovica, which is becoming a city of science, technology, IT“.

– the construction of a sports hall began in North Mitrovica in October 2016. The works are financed from the Fund for the North (created in 2013 as a result of the BG-PR dialogue and which collects revenues from the Jarinje and Brnjak crossing paid to Kosovo customs), as it was announced earlier, its completion was planned for 2017. For this construction, €900,000 was originally allocated from this fund, while additional funds were allocated at the beginning of the month.