Kosovo is the poorest region in southeast Europe, with the greatest unemployment rate, according to a report of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) which was released on Thursday.
Citing the World Bank statistics, the report said that about 53percent of the population lives below the poverty line of 1.5 euros (2.38 U.S. dollars) a day, while the jobless rate is between45 and 50 percent of the labor force.
Presenting the report in Pristina, UNDP's representative in Kosovo Frode Mauring said the report focused on assistance to the poor and requested the Kosovo government to improve market conditions and to create better conditions for investors, the Serbian official news agency Tanjug reported.
There can be no sustainable development without a sustainable employment increase, Mauring said, adding that private companies played a very important role in that sense.
Kosovo, which has two million population dominated by ethnic Albanians, unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in February after nearly nine years as a UN protectorate.
Though 43 countries, including the leading Western nations, have recognized Kosovo, Serbia refuses to acknowledge the departure of its southern province and has, with Russia's backing, so far blocked its induction into the United Nations and other international institutions.
Kosovo has a gross domestic product of only 1,800 U.S. dollars per capita and even of that one-fifth is foreign aid and another 15 percent is remittance from the Diaspora, mostly in Switzerland and Germany.
The unemployment issue in Kosovo is aggravated by the highest-in-Europe birthrate, which delivers up to 30,000 adults to the job market every year, five times what Kosovo businesses can absorb.
Source:Xinhua
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