Kushtrim Xhakli

LIFT Conference 2009

Kushtrim Xhakli — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:37:37 +0000

Where has the future gone? This is what Lift09 explored during three sunny days on February 2009 in Geneva. Many things have changed in the past decades, even if we don’t ride flying cars nor have smart fridges ordering our carrots. Ask yourself this: are you sure you want your neighbor – the one who tends to make a long stop at the pub after work – to drive a vehicle with wings? We’re not sure either.

We all have different futures, and in William Gibson’s famous words, “future is not evenly distributed”. It is up to us to built it, and we certainly had with us some of the people who have a shot at influencing it with brilliant ideas. See the Lift09 talks and for more check the blogs, Flickr and Twitter.

During days of conference Sandbox (http://www.sandbox-network.com), a global network for extraordinary young talents together with LIFT Conference organised a dinner with the same topic bringing together extraordinary young achievers under age of 30 to network, exchange ideas and talk about some questions related to this years’ conference topic, “Where did the future go?”.

LIFT Conference is the highest reccomended conference in Europe, this year was amazing to see Vint Cerf, Google Evangelist talking about Interplanetary Internet (see video below)

Happy Birthday Republic of Kosovo

Kushtrim Xhakli — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 12:17:16 +0000

Republic of Kosovo today is one year old. Last year on 17th of February, representing the democratic will of majority of people in Kosovo, our country declared independence and became the newest state in the world to be recognized by most EU and NATO countries which makes 70% of world’s GDP.

In one year Republic of Kosovo made a good progress toward to commitments and challenges. The reality of Kosovo was accepted by all democratic societies in the world. Today Kosovo celebrates its own independence anniversary having established its own identity, investments, security force, passports and bilateral cooperation with states that recognized.

Celebration started all over Kosovo, people gathered to mark the first anniversary which will be followed with philharmonic concert and fireworks in the midnight. Join the celebration. Happy Independence Birthday Kosovo.

D-Telekom Unveils Macedonia Investment

Kushtrim Xhakli — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 11:40:55 +0000

Deutsche Telecom’s landline operator T-Home and mobile operator T-Mobile plan to invest about €160 million in Macedonia over the next three years, the companies said Thursday.

Both operators plan to invest €80 million each in improving the networks and introducing novelties that when complete will create new jobs in the country, said Nikolai Beckers, CEO of Macedonia Telecom, which is owned by the Germans.

Planed investments include fiber optic cable installation projects, network upgrades, creation of auxiliary networks, updates and investment in equipment, Beckers said, noting that work on some projects had already begun.

The company said there that numbers of landline telephony users are expected to decline in Macedonia, as it happens around the world. He noted that the company puts a lot of effort into improving its internet and IP TV offer where demand is rising.

T-Home and T mobile are the leading telecommunications firms on the Macedonian market. [Source: Balkan Insight]

Internet Penetration in Albania

Kushtrim Xhakli — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 00:10:29 +0000

Internet penetration rate in Albania grew to 18% during 2008, compared to 15% in 2007, but it is still too low while Internet connections remain quite expensive, Top Channel TV reported.

According to Nuredin Hasanaj, an expert interviewed by Top Channel, low penetration of fixed phone lines makes difficult internet expansion in the country.

“Prices for Internet access are higher here then in other Balkan countries”, Hasanaj explains. About 570,000 Albanians had an internet connection in 2008 in a population of roughly 3 million. (AE)

Telegrafi.com covers US president inauguration live

Kushtrim Xhakli — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:26:27 +0000

Telegrafi.com was the only internet portal in Kosovo to cover live the US president inaguration on its site. Telegrafi.com is independent portal in albanian language based in Prishtina, Kosovo founded in 2006.

Albania is on 62nd place for economic freedom, Macedonia ranked on 78th, Kosovo not included

Kushtrim Xhakli — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:30:31 +0000

Albania got 62nd place in the world ranking among 183 countries and 27th ranking in Europe’s economic freedom in the chart 2009 Index of Economic freedom. While Macedonia ranked 78th, 33rd from 43 countries in Europe. Serbia’s rank of 109 and 37th position in Europe is below the world average economic freedom. Kosovo was not included in the rankings.

Baltic countries are in top 50 with: Estonia 13th (6th in Europe), Lithuania 30th (17th in Europe), and Latvia 45th (23rd in Europe) above the regional and world averages.

Hong Kong continues to be the most economic freedom country in the world.

Full Report in here

Value Added Tax increased in Kosovo by 1%

Kushtrim Xhakli — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 20:28:14 +0000

The assembly of Republic of Kosovo has passed the amendment for the new Value Added Tax regulation. With the new law VAT gets increased from 15% into 16%. The regulation is in power from 1 January 2009, and affects all the registered businesses under new regulation. According to the Kosovo Tax Administration there will be new forms of VAT reporting which will be affected in Q1 (VAT declaration to be declared by 28th February 2009, for tax period of January 2009).

Assembly passed also law amendments, which reduces the personal income tax in Kosovo. A major change is for the employees which recieves more than 450 Euro now will be paying only 10% personal income tax (20% previously). Experts at the Tax Administration believes that the reduction of personal income tax will be an attraction to potential foreign investment in Kosovo.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Best Practice Award 2008

Kushtrim Xhakli — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 01:25:26 +0000

During ECDL Foundation CEO Summit in Vienna which was held during 23-25 October 2008, a special award was granted to trajnimi.com national portal, which has adopted ECDL as a standard for ICT education and as a means to increase employability in Kosovo.
Award was given from Jim Friars, Chairman of ECDL Foundation to Kushtrim Xhakli representative of the portal which was launched in 2007 and had a major success on advancing the IT skills based education in Kosovo.

Speaking at ECDL Foundation CEO Summit Vienna, 23-25 October 2008

Varavingo

Kushtrim Xhakli — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:04:24 +0000

Varavingo është një rrjet social eksluziv në rritje për individët dhe shoqërinë shqipëtare në internet. Varavingo lejon që ju ti gjeni ish kolegët miqtë, të krijoni kontakte te reja, të njoftoni me më të rejat në aspektin lokal ku jetoni dhe mundësi ti shkëmbeni fotografitë me komunitetin qe ju rrethon.

Varavingo.com ndihmon personave që të krijojnë kontakte, miqësi, takojnë miqtë e vjetër, dhe të ri. Mësojnë se c’bëjnë miqtë natë e ditë në varavingo! dhe mundësinë e shfletimit të fotografive interesante nga komunitetet. Mbi te gjitha mundesinë e lidhjes së anëtarëve ndërmjet universitetetve dhe shkollave te mesme ne gjithë trevat shqiptare, Kosovë, Shqipëri dhe Maqedoni.

Bonu Interesant: VARAVINGO

Mobile Monday

Kushtrim Xhakli — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:57:55 +0000

Going to Mobile Monday event in Vilnius, Lithuania, to see presentations about “Mobile payments. Topicalities and perspectives”.
Mobile Monday is a global community of mobile industry visionaries, developers and influentials fostering cooperation and cross-border business development through virtual and live networking events to share ideas, best practices and trends from global markets.