Today, “hopefully” on the eve of the end of the Covid-19 Pandemic, we are cautiously celebrating the 14th Anniversary of Independence of the Republic of Kosovo. The Covid19 Pandemic declared on 11 March 2020 by World Health Organization, caused numerous problems including lack of motivation at the societal and individual level. The most damaging element to motivation is when people lose hope and when they focus on bad things rather than good ones. Humanity has witnessed worse crises and even depressions in hundred thousands of years of its history. In any difficult situation, people should not give up on their dreams and optimism. If we give up, our motivation decreases and we cannot be happy. Today’s happiness is determined by our ingenuity of self-motivation, and tomorrow’s happiness will be determined by our dreams and sanguinity. Each country has its own history, its priorities, and even its specific challenges. We should always be optimistic despite the difficulties in all circumstances. Rest assured, we Kosovars are always optimistic people. While the Republic of Kosovo declared its independence with the strong support of the international community, it set out the goal for more social peace, more freedom, more justice, and more commitment to sustainable development. Despite some weaknesses, difficulties, and dissatisfactions, we Kosovars are immensely proud of the progress we made especially in last few years. Kosovo has many reasons to be hopeful for a better future. Our country has the youngest population in Europe. With a median age of 29.1 years, Kosovo is Europe’s youth corner, a continent with a median age of 42.5 years. The young population is the most basic indicator of the human potential of a country. It is also very valuable to have a relatively high Human Development Index of a country that got out of the war in 1999. Furthermore, the relatively low Gini Coefficient makes us optimistic about social equality in Kosovo. If we recover quickly from the consequences caused by the pandemic and if we manage to continue developing trend as in 2021 with the economic growth of 7.5 %, Kosovo in the next few years will pave the way toward the goal of becoming a developed country. The necessary infrastructure for development has also been largely established. We now have relatively good infrastructure and new highways between the main centres of Kosovo and our neighbouring countries, but also new projects to develop railway networks and energy capacities. It is worth mentioning that our inherited infrastructure was destroyed in war in 1999. During these years, besides State and institutional level achievements we are also proud of the success of our people in every field, especially in arts and sports. On the 14th Anniversary of our Independence, taking into account that the previous successes as examples will pave the way for new targets, it is important to underline a few achievements in several fields over the past year. For example, Kosovan young filmmakers achieved big successes at various international film festivals. Kosovo’s 14th independence anniversary and new reasons for optimism Kosovo’s 14th independence anniversary and new reasons for optimism “Hive”, “The Hill Where Lionesses Roar” and “Looking for Venera”, all directed by the young Kosovar female film directors are awarded internationally. Also, worth mentioning that the Kosovar director Samir Karahodais awarded and left a deep impression on the world’s prestigious film festivals with his short film named “Displaced”. We are also proud of the achievements of Kosovar musicians and singers such as RameLahaj, Petrit Ceku, Dua Lipa, Era Istrefi, Rita Ora and others. As a country, we left a successful year behind in sports as well. For example, we are proud of Kosovo’s accomplishments in women judokas that brought us gold medals in Summer Olympic Games. Our gold medallist Distria Krasniqi won the prize “IJF’s athlete of the year 2021”, and our national coach Driton Kuka was awarded “IJF’s best coach of the year 2021”. Our young athletes achieved big successes in the other sports branches as well. The Republic of Kosovo in its recent history is committed to establishing a strong democracy inside and having peaceful and constructive relations with all the international entities. In order to combat global challenges such as global warming, global infectious disease outbreaks, global terrorism, and other threats, but also to solve disputes between countries, we must cooperate further with one another. Relations of the Republic of Kosovo with the People’s Republic of Bangladesh can serve as a good example for countries that are still reluctant to have formal relations with our country. The People’s Republic of Bangladesh on February 27, 2017, has recognized the independence of the Republic of Kosovo, while a year after the recognition we established diplomatic relations. Relations between the two countries are developing rapidly and can be considered friendly and excellent. For a short time, we initiated cooperation in different fields. With the engagement of two parties, bilateral trade is increasing day by day, the cooperation between our institutions is at a satisfactory level, Bangladeshi students for the first time in history started to choose Kosovoas their destination for high education, Kosovar companies started to employ Bangladeshi personnel, etc.
