Petrit Selimi
Petrit Selimi
Petrit SELIMI (1979) has been appointed in June 2011 as the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Republic of Kosovo. He is also Member of the special State Commission on Religious Freedoms and has been appointed as National Coordinator for implementation of regional cooperation agreement with Serbia.
In Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo, Selimi has launched a host of innovative programs in public diplomacy, inter-faith dialogue and has launched the National Strategy on Digital Diplomacy. In his first two years of engagement, he has fundraised over 3.5 million Euro in donations for projects of Kosovo's Foreign Ministry from donors such as Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office, George Soros Foundation, Tony Blair faith Foundation, King Abdullah International Centre for Interreligious Dialogue, etc.
Before joining the MFA, Selimi ran for an MP seat for the governing Democratic Party of Kosovo at 2010 National Elections. Prior to this, he has worked from 2006 to 2010 as a private Public Relations and political risk consultant, providing advice for companies and institutions such as NASDAQ-listed Telenor ASA, National Democratic Institute Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, RWE AG, Reiffeisen Investment, Lazard, etc.
From 2005-2006 Selimi was one of the founders and the first Executive Director of the daily Express, an independent newspaper published in Prishtina. He joined Express after working as media and democratisation advisor in OSCE Mission in Kosovo (2003-2004). During his spell in OSCE, Selimi initiated the program on sign-langugae for hearing-impaired with still runs on public broadcaster of Kosovo.
In 1990's, Selimi was active as children’s and youth rights activist, being one of the founders of Postpessimists, the first network of youth NGO’s in former Yugoslavia (1992-1998). They won UN Peace and Tolerance Award.
He has in recent years served in the Board of Directors of Soros Foundation in Kosovo and Executive Board of President Ahtisaari’s Balkan Children and Youth Foundation.
He speaks fluent Albanian, English, Norwegian and Serbian. Selimi has a BA in Social Anthropology from University of Oslo, and has studied for MSc in Media and Communications from London School of Economics, as a recipient of Chevening Scholarship. He has lectured in diverse topics in Yale University, University of Tirana, Chatham House, Irish Institute for International and European Affairs, etc.
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