Norwegian Ambassador: Peja is known for innovation and entrepreneurship

The Norwegian Ambassador, Per Strand Sjaastad, accompanied by Mr Besnik Tahiri, Executive Director of the KLGI Institute, visited the Municipality of Peja, where they met Mayor Muhaxheri and representatives of the municipality.

The Municipality of Peja is known for innovation and entrepreneurship, but it is also an attraction for many tourists. This is how the Norwegian Ambassador, Per Strand Sjaastad, sees the Municipality of Peja, while noting that even more should be done in the field of tourism development.

“It has been very important for us to help Kosovo economically and politically and to get to know the challenges municipalities face,” the Norwegian Ambassador said, adding that keeping hope alive among young people, who are the future of Peja, should be the main focus of local policy.

He proposes deepening cooperation and combining opportunities with Albania, since Kosovo has the mountains and the Albanian state has the sea. Besides deepening cooperation, this would create a compact tourism zone.

Ambassador Sjaastad also showed marked interest in the municipality’s technical, operational and professional capacities, focusing on the respective roles of the municipality and the centre in the development of municipalities, and in particular of strategic sectors, in this case tourism infrastructure.

The Norwegian Ambassador expressed all this interest at a meeting with the mayor of Peja, Gazmend Muhaxheri. According to the mayor, Peja is making every effort to develop tourism, agriculture and infrastructure and to support small businesses.

“We now have agricultural professionals, and we are working to increase human resources from secondary education,” Mayor Muhaxheri said, speaking about local professional capacities.

For Mr Tahiri, Peja has an excellent presentation of its urban plan and great potential for tourism development. “The ambitions for cities like Peja and Prizren should be higher,” Tahiri said. After the meeting, the parties visited Peja’s city centre before continuing with other visits in the Dukagjin Region.

These visits are coordinated by the KLGI Institute, as the main partner of the Norwegian Embassy in the field of local governance, and aim to give Ambassador Sjaastad first-hand knowledge of the challenges, progress and prospects of municipalities.