UK-Kosovo Tech Hub launches in Tech Park Prishtina
The UK-Kosovo Tech Hub was launched on 25 June at Tech Park Prishtina, in front of around 70 guests from Kosovo’s technology companies, institutions, academia and the United Kingdom. An initiative of STIKK, the Kosovo ICT Association, the Hub is built to do one thing well: connect Kosovo’s ICT sector to real demand in the UK market.
The event opened with remarks from STIKK Executive Director Vjollca Cavolli, who welcomed the guests and thanked the partners who helped bring the Hub to life.
British Ambassador to Kosovo, Jonathan Hargreaves, framed the logic of the partnership. “The UK brings one of the most dynamic tech ecosystems in the world, worth over a trillion pounds, powered by more than a million people, and driven by innovation across AI, fintech, cyber security and digital industries,” he said.
He then turned to what Kosovo offers in return. “Kosovo has something powerful. A young, capable and multilingual workforce. A generation that adapts quickly, learns fast and builds boldly. A technology sector that is already working across borders. We do not want simply to talk about potential. We want to help create the conditions for it. That is why we created the UK and Kosovo Tech Hub, a practical platform that connects businesses, strengthens networks and helps Kosovo tell its story more effectively.”
Visar Pacarada, CEO of ProCredit Bank Kosovo, spoke as a supporter of the Hub and of the wider effort to open international markets for Kosovo’s companies.
The event continued with a presentation by the coordinator of the Hub, Aldo Baxhaku of STIKK, “UK ICT Demand and Kosovo Opportunities”, the research the Hub is built on. The numbers told a clear story. Kosovo’s ICT exports to the UK have more than tripled in recent years, from around 4 to 13.9 million euro, and yet the UK is still only the fourth largest market for Kosovo’s technology firms, far behind Germany, the United States and Switzerland. The services those markets buy are not very different from what the UK buys, which makes the UK a market Kosovo has under-served, not one it cannot reach. The presentation set out how the Hub will close that gap through three functions: matchmaking that connects Kosovo supply to real UK demand, market intelligence that tells firms where the demand actually is, and trade missions that put firms in the room with UK buyers. The audience took part directly, answering live questions from the floor.
Joining online from the UK, David Smith of BAE Systems shared his own experience of working with Kosovo and what it has shown him about the country’s technology talent.
The proof came in a fireside conversation with Behar Fazliu, CEO of Arcus. Fazliu told the story of Arcus’s work with BAE Systems, including the system that secured and published the results of Kosovo’s last national election with no downtime. It was the clearest possible answer to the question many UK buyers still ask, can Kosovo deliver at our standard. It already has.
Partners from the British Kosovar Chamber of Commerce, John Grogan, Artan Llabjani and Dan Qarkaj, joined online to add the UK business perspective and to reaffirm the partnership between BKCC and STIKK.
The event closed with a moment the guests had built themselves. On arrival, each had added a line to a collective artwork generated through AI, revealed at the end as a single piece. It was a small image of what the Hub is about: many separate contributions, one shared platform.
The UK and Kosovo Tech Hub is an initiative of STIKK, supported by the British Embassy in Pristina and ProCredit Bank Kosovo, and delivered in partnership with the British Kosovar Chamber of Commerce, with whom STIKK has signed a Memorandum of Understanding.
The first concrete steps come this autumn, with two B2B trade missions, in London and Prishtina, in September and October, putting Kosovo’s ICT companies directly in front of UK buyers. Companies interested in taking part can contact STIKK at [email protected].
