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Driven by the potential that Kosovo has in the field of information and communication technology (IT), the German company "Borek Solutions" has opened an office in Pristina.
One of its leaders, Paul Schmieder, says that a large number of young people educated in the IT field, those who speak two or more foreign languages, as well as the geographical proximity of Kosovo to European countries, have been among the main factors that pushed his company to expand its business in Kosovo as well.
"The language here is not a problem at all. Here you can speak English, German, sometimes even Italian or other languages, and it makes communication very easy. The young generation is also an element that we are looking for and this is sometimes missing in Germany. Energy and creativity are what this generation can bring," says Schmieder for Radio Free Europe.
His company, which offers various services in the field of information technology, also has an office in India.
The staff of "Borek Solutions" in Kosovo and India collaborates with medium-sized companies in Germany, Great Britain and the United States of America.
"Clients approach us and say: Hey, we want to form marketing, design, software development, or IT customer support team in German or English. We help them form these teams, offering them different products", explains Schmieder.
"Borek Solutions" opened its office in Kosovo on June 6 and currently has ten employees. At the company level, there are about 200 workers in total.
The IT sector in Kosovo is relatively new, having started to develop in the early 2000s.
Since then, dozens of local companies have been established to meet local needs in the IT field. But, in recent years, the number of companies that mainly sell their services and products to different companies in the world is increasing.
The data of the Statistics Agency of Kosovo (SAK) show that Kosovo has a relatively young population, with an average age of 35 years.
In addition, Kosovo also has a high level of internet usage, comparable to some of the most developed European countries, such as Germany and Denmark.
According to SAK, during 2021, households in Kosovo had access to the Internet from their homes - through any device - at a level of 96.1 percent.
All these elements make Kosovo an attractive country in the IT sector, says Uranik Begu, leader of the Innovation Center in Kosovo (ICK).
Begu says that the global demand for services and products in the IT sector is increasing every day.
According to him, Kosovo should not allow its potential to fade by not creating educational programs and not supporting organizations that develop the IT sector.
"The lack of personnel and talent in relation to the demand, especially in Europe, but also globally, is increasing. Therefore, it is a good opportunity for us, as Kosovo, to see this sector as a sector with potential and to serve this market that has a big void in relation to demand", says Begu for Radio Free Europe.
But, according to him, the lack of institutional support for the IT sector in Kosovo is noticeable.
As an example, Begu takes the organization he leads, ICK, for which, as he says, in ten years of operation, there has been no institutional support. This, despite the fact that in ICK, according to him, more than 8,500 young men and women have been trained, as well as more than 550 businesses have been supported.
ICK, says Begu, operates only through grants and donations from international organizations.
Begu says that without strengthening education and increasing support from institutions, the IT sector in Kosovo may lose its potential.
"With a little investment in education and training, we can perhaps create a new, stable, and long-term basis, to really create opportunities for young men and women in Kosovo", says Begu.
Among the main services offered by Kosovar companies for the foreign market are: software development, customer support, call centers, creative parts in the design, web design, animation, marketing, and others.
The entrepreneur in the field of IT in Kosovo, Jeta Zagragja, says that Kosovo holds the primacy in the Western Balkans region, as far as the provision of IT services for foreign companies is concerned.
According to her, Kosovo has this primacy due to the fact that the region has been affected by what is known as brain drain, or the departure of qualified young people to work for larger companies abroad.
"Kosovo has not yet faced much brain drain, as Croatia, Serbia and North Macedonia have faced. So, we are still a stable source for providing services to these companies", says Zagragja for Radio Free Europe.
However, she also points out that this advantage of Kosovo can be lost quickly, if, as she says, new programs of better quality education for young people are not created.
In the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology, and Innovation of Kosovo, they say that they are focused on the digitization of education, as well as on the development of human resources in the IT sector.
The Deputy Minister of MASHTI, Dukagjin Pupovci, say that this institution has recently drawn up the Strategic Plan for Education in Kosovo 2022-2026, which, among other things, envisages the digitization of education.
"Within this objective, special importance is attached to supplying schools with information and communication technology infrastructure, starting from local networks to computers and accessories", says Pupovci.
He adds that the main goal is to raise the digital competence of students and teachers, which, according to him, will then affect the development of the information and communication technology sector in Kosovo.
In addition to public universities, there are several private universities in Kosovo that offer various programs in the field of IT.
Companies and non-governmental organizations that organize different courses also contribute to the development of this sector.
From the cooperation he has had with many young people, Zagragja says that the best programmers have been those who have acquired this craft through various courses and books.
"The main problem for us in the education system is the creation of the skills of critical thinking, and logic, which is the basis of further perfection. Some young people find different ways to get skilled, because we, in the company, have had some of the best programmers from those who learned programming through online courses, different books... who started with projects and who have learned to program", says Zagragja.
Intended for export
Although developed late in relation to other European countries, the IT sector in Kosovo has managed to break the isolation and sell services and products abroad.
According to a study published in May 2021 by the Information and Communication Technology Association of Kosovo, it appears that over 90 percent of companies based in Kosovo export their services and products.
"91.18% of the IT companies that participated in the research export their services/products to international markets, compared to 5.88% of companies that only work locally," the report states.
The report also highlights that the countries that have the greatest potential to export services and products for Kosovar companies are Switzerland and Germany, followed by the USA, Canada and the United Kingdom.