- English
To stimulate economic development, Sweden supports Innovation Centre Kosovo (ICK), whose purpose is to strengthen entrepreneurship, innovation and create more jobs. This is done with a particular focus on young people, women and minority groups. Another Swedish partner is the International Business College of Mitrovica (IBCM). The collage is multi-ethnic in its nature and is contributing to increased employment by offering EU accredited bachelor diplomas to Albanian, Serbian, Roma, Ashkalia, Egyptian and Bosnian communities. More than 50% of the students, teachers and other staff are women. Sweden has assessed the IBCM project as a good example on integration of a conflict sensitive perspective and gender equality.
Sweden also supports the project EMPOWER Private Sector. The project helps small and medium-sized enterprises expand and improve their capacity. Today, two years after the implementation, EMPOWER works with more than 200 small and medium-sized enterprises and has created 1,700 jobs. Sweden jointly with USAID, KfW and the Government of Kosovo furthermore supports the Kosovo Credit Guarantee Fund, to provide credit guarantees to banks and financial institutions to stimulate increased lending to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Kosovo.