Press Release
Heavy industry commits to environmental protection
Prishtina, May 7, 2013 - Committee of Heavy Industry, a joint body of the American Chamber of
Commerce in Kosovo and Kosovo Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the Network of
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) have organized a roundtable to discuss the role and
responsibility to the environment, focusing on heavy industry in Kosovo.
During the roundtable, the participants discussed about the necessary measures which companies
of this sector should undertake in order to meet appropriate environmental standards.
Deputy Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning, Shpetim Rudi, said that the aim of the
Ministry of Environment is to protect the economic development of businesses from environmental
damages that can be caused from their own activities, providing a high level of environmental
protection, without compromising the competitive ability of the business.
The Head of Policy Department in AmCham, Visar Hapciu talked about the opportunities and
experiences learned from the investments of international companies in the protection of
environment, emphasizing that the investments of companies of the heavy industry sector in
environmental protection, through the use of alternative materials, help in making the energy
generation process less harmful, but, at the same time, they reduce the necessary amount of energy
for production.
Agron Bekteshi, Director of the Regional Environmental Center, talked about the challenges and
role of the environmental civil society in Kosovo, as well as the areas which should be improved in
order to strengthen the impact of civil society in environmental governance.
On the other hand, the representative of Committee of Heavy Industry, Ylber Burgija, emphasized
that environment and health protection is one of the main responsibilities of a society considering
that the society consists of various factors, such as: civil, public, private factors etc, therefore, the
mutual cooperation between these factors is a precondition and a necessity for cultivating a healthy
environment for all of us.
Leke Musa, CSR Kosovo Board Member, said that the environment protection is one of the pillars
and main objectives of Kosovo CSR Network and member companies of this Network remain
committed to achieve these goals.
The investments that were made recently by Kosovar Enterprises of Heavy Industry were
considered as positive by participants. The following companies as: Kosovo Energy Corporation,
Ferronikel, and Sharrcem, invested with installation of cleaner technology, in order to reduce
negative impacts on the environment.