Regional development strategy - RDA South

REGIONAL PROFILEEconomy: Infrastructure and Business Environment22.3Railway networkSimilarly to most of Kosovo regions, lack of operationalrailway system makes it impossibleto use the railway transport, which is seen asan obstacle for the regional development. Inthe Economic Region South there is only onepotential railway connection with the Kosovorailway network. This is the line that used torun from Prizren through Xërxë and Klinë/Klinato Fushë Kosovë/Kosovo Polje. It was completedin 1963 and had a total length of 58,43km. Both, the line itself and the terminal inPrizren are currently dysfunctional. As a resultof the lack of investment in maintenance, thetechnical condition is currently quite marginal.Railroad infrastructure is practically nonexistent.The rails are damaged by unauthorizedcrossing points, there is a lot of illegalconstruction in the railway belt and there arepiles of garbage accumulated on the tracks.There are no viable plans to address this weaknessin the short- or medium-term.The main inter-regional railway knot in Kosovois the Fushë Kosovë/Kosovo Polje facilitywhich provides connections with Skopje andBelgrade. The Prizren-Xerxe-Fushe Kosovo/KosovoPolje connection has deteriorated to suchan extent that it may never be economically feasibleto reconstruct it.Lack of investment in the Prizren – Fushë Kosovë/KosovoPolje railway line is seen as a significantimpediment to the development of theRegion South. It creates an additional pressureto speed up the highway construction on Kosovoside. Without access to convenient transportcorridors the sustainable development of theregion would be seriously hampered.Access to portsand airportsConvenient access to seaports and airports hasa direct impact on business development, as itinfluences the transportation costs and accessof goods to international and regional markets.Kosovo currently has only one internationalcivil airport in Slatina near Prishtinë/Priština as well as another one for KFOR militaryneeds - near Gjakovë/Ðakovica.Prishtina International Airport services onaverage of 20 flights per day and the numberis steadily increasing. In 2008, for the firsttime the number of civilian passengers hasreached 1.137.000 passengers and, in addition,the military personnel of 100 thousand.Prishtina International Airport also handlesthe air cargo. The data related to the volume ofcargo handled by the airport is not readilyavailable but it provides services to some globalcompanies such as FEDEX, UPS, TNT, DHL,AES Cargo & Move One.As Kosovo is landlocked and has no direct accessto the sea, the only access to the seaportsof Durrës and Shengjini is through the newlyconstructed highway Morina – Kukës – Durrës.Closest logistic centres for transporting ofgoods of the Region South are at the Prishtina/PrištinaAirport, at the port of Durrës andat the railway terminal in Fushë Kosovë/KosovoPolje.EnvironmentalinfrastructureWater supply and sewage management inEconomic Region South are provided by a publiccompany “Hidroregjioni Jugor”. The levelof services is classified by the Water and WasteRegulatory Office as lower than average forKosovo. Water supply network covers some49% of the territory of the Region and sewagenetwork about 44% of the territory (as comparedto respectively 70% and 50% for Kosovo).Service provision is mostly concentrated in urbanizedareas. Lack of resources is seen as anobstacle to further development of the networks.The sector cannot achieve profitabilityas pricing is controlled publicly and reflects astate social policy and in addition, there arecollection problems. Currently there are noplans to treat the sewage in the entire region.Sewage represents a serious environmentalproblem in the Region and possibly contaminateswater. While Kosovo does have a basicset of environmental laws and standards,their enforcement is still very weak.Solid waste management is provided by apublic company “Ekoregjioni”. It provides servicesto some 39% of the Region’s area which isan average for Kosovo but still regarded ashighly insufficient by European standards.There are currently no programs in place inthe Region South to sort solid waste, to collectsorted waste nor to process it (or eventually recycle).There are also no major efforts to raisethe environmental awareness of the population.Addressing effectively the environmentalissues seems to be a very urgent matter asit affects the quality of life in the Region andhurts Region’s aspirations to strongly developthe tourism sector.REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY FOR THE ECONOMIC REGION SOUTH15