What hope for Kosovo's economy?
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 5 May 2024
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ed Butler travels to Kosovo to find out what the prospects are for this young, ethnically divided population.
After Ukraine, it's Europe's poorest region, where a brutal past still casts a shadow.
But it's also a territory full of economic promise – with precious minerals buried underground, and vast vineyards. If only the politics would stop getting in the way.
(Image: A wine maker in Kosovo, Milan Lakicevic, standing in front of stainless steel tanks, while holding a bottle of his wine.)
Presented and produced by Ed Butler
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm stepping on board now. |
| 0:06.8 | This isn't for the faint heart. |
| 0:08.1 | I can tell you that for nothing. |
| 0:11.4 | Welcome to Business Daily here on the BBC World Service. |
| 0:15.4 | My name's Ed Butler and I'm about to head down, alongside a dozen other miners, |
| 0:21.0 | into Europe's largest and possibly least-resourced lead, zinc and silver mine. |
| 0:28.4 | It's not the smoothest lift I've ever caught. |
| 0:31.1 | This is Trepshire in Kosovo, and I'm here as part of a wider exploration of life in this small Balkan territory. |
| 0:39.9 | So how deep are we going now? |
| 0:41.8 | Around 700. |
| 0:43.2 | We're going down 700 metres. |
| 0:45.4 | And as well as heading deep into the earth, |
| 0:48.2 | I'm also going to be examining the possibilities and the challenges |
| 0:52.6 | afflicting Central Europe's poorest economy. |
| 0:56.8 | It's really, really difficult right now. |
| 0:58.9 | I honestly, I was born here. |
| 0:59.9 | I do not remember economically and socially |
| 1:03.3 | that it was more difficult than right now. |
| 1:06.4 | It's chaos. |
| 1:07.7 | It really is. |
| 1:09.8 | The most number of people is live in Kosovo now. |
| 1:14.4 | We are not have like opportunity for better life. |
... |
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