THE DEVELOPMENT TRAP at the heart of the Balkans. A socio-economic portrait of Gjilan, Kumanovo and Presevo
THE DEVELOPMENT TRAP at the heart of the Balkans. A socio-economic portrait of Gjilan, Kumanovo and Presevo

Author(s): Author Not Specified
Subject(s): Micro-Economics, Security and defense, Inter-Ethnic Relations
Published by: ESI – European Stability Initiative
Keywords: Gjilan; Kumanovo; Preshevo; Kosovo; South-Serbia;
Summary/Abstract: ESI has spent the past year studying economic trends in the region and looking for development potential. Most of the news is bad. Only a handful of the old socially owned enterprises have made a successful transition to private ownership. The new private sector is small in scale, dominated by shops, cafés and basic services, and can absorb only a fraction of the labour shed by industry. Commercial agriculture is on the decline, and family farms do not produce the revenues for reinvesting in machinery. We estimate that no more than 33 percent of the working-age population are employed, compared to the EU average of 63 percent. This is the development trap at the heart of the Western Balkans. Regions with this economic profile are not attractive to private investors. Nor do they generate significant revenues of their own to support public investments in development. Unless there is a concerted effort by central governments and their international partners to invest in overcoming the barriers to economic growth, the region will continue to fall further behind.

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