The December agreement allowed access to a limited number of Kosovar experts for conducting a survey, assess the required maintenance work and enhance security condition of the mine of Stari Trg. The new Memorandum focuses on the need to increase safety standards and working conditions for the miners, as well as on ways to improving ongoing maintenance of the sites. The work on the Sharr Cement Tender continued. The Sharr Cement management was presented with an Albanian translation of the Rules of Tender. During the meeting various concerns of the management and workers were addressed, including objectives of the tender, possible consequences for the plant and workers following the entrance of a strategic investor, transparency of the process, protection of Kosovo interests.
Potential investors continue to conduct their due diligence at the plant.
Requests for clarifications from the investors on the Rules of Tender, legal issues and logistics for on-site visits are being continuously addressed. The preliminary assessment reveals that although the factory is in need of repair and some reconstruction, the major technological components of production are intact for the most part. The financial model constructed on the basis of the available information indicates that within the ten-year term of the lease the strategic investor can realize a healthy return on its investments in the plant. The topic of the Sharr cement tender, as an example of the implementation of the latter strategy, will also be presented. Pillar IV has prepared a database of 156 publicly owned enterprises in Kosovo, with basis information on each enterprise.