I am happy because I can wake up in the morning and thank god that I am able to do something for others and this makes me very happy. Of course I am also very happy that I am Kosovar; if you make a friend there you will always remain in their heart.

Mr. Pacolli , perhaps for our readers, could you introduce yourself?

I finished my military obligations in 1973 and in 1974 I started to work as an Area Sales Manager for an Austrian company that

Mr.Behgjet Pacolli

specialised in producing textile machines. At the time the company was very successful in Holland and in the Soviet Union and I met a Manager from one of our competitors that was working Lugano in Switzerland. He was very interested that I leave Austria and go with him to Switzerland, so eventually I did and in 1976 I started working for a company called Interplastika. I worked there for 13 years until 1990 when I decided to establish my own company. The reason behind this being that my previous employer married my secretary and although we remained friends there was nothing more between us. I established Mabetex in 1990, in 1991 I closed business with a turnover of 60 million dollars, in 1992 our second year of operating with 300 million and in 1993 we closed business with over 600 million, by 1994 our turnover was over one billion US dollars. It was very hard work and we continued from 1994 until 1999 at about the same rate of development. We restructured in 2000 and we have headquarters not only in Lugano, Switzerland but also in Moscow and in Kazakhstan so we divide the
business equally between these offices. We also have another group called the Diamond Group, which incorporates travel agencies bars, restaurants, Hotel and airline companies.


Is there a strategy behind the diversification of Mabetex or did it occur naturally?

If you were to come to me tomorrow and say: "Mr. Pacolli I have this idea and this business, I am able to run this business lets work together" I would reply: "why not"! I like to create. For example we have an entertainment company, which incorporates movie production and famous artists! The company was established in November 2001 and is called B&G entertainment sa we are already very successful and work with the biggest artists of the Italian music scene. Every year our artists are participating at the high level San Remo song festival, with guest stars in 2002, like Shakira, Britney Spears, Alicia Keys, Kelly Minogue and many others (Mabetex Group). We have a very distinct line of business and within just six months we managed to produce 13 long play films. It is a group that is known throughout the USA, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Albania, as well as in China. I believe that all cultures have to share nice things, China brings us its culture while Europe gives it theirs, so in reality I am really here to create, I love to create and to do new and exciting things. Why shouldn't I give a chance to people with good business ideas, why not? I like to diversify; we are involved in many industries from the media to cosmetics, building, tourism, entertainment as well as transport.

Mabetex has achieved considerable growth and success in just ten years. What do you attribute it too, is it your entrepreneurial spirit or simply the right economic conditions?

I have seen the magazine; I see that it has success because people like you have motivation. I see that you are successful, and if you get up in the morning and you want to achieve something, with your heart, your spirit and your motivation, you can almost always guarantee your success. I never set out to do something without believing and promising myself that I can achieve it, I have to be convinced in what I do! To conduct business you need a partner, when you are someone's partner you have to listen very closely to their needs and you have to treat them well. You have to be able to resolve their problems and understand their ups and downs, you have to be able to work and grow with them at the same level. You have to behave in the same manner with everyone, and it is very important that you demonstrate respect and adjust to everyone's needs. Success has to be for everyone, not just you but also for your partner company, as they should receive what you promise to deliver. Both companies have to assess and measure their own benefits, success and of course profit. My grandfather use to say if you have an apple that is split in two you should always give the slightly bigger half to your friend, and you should keep the smaller piece. You always have to take care and honour your partner and this is how I see my success, by building on these very foundations because this way the doors are always left open and not shut behind you. I believe that I have an extremely big heart and your heart also has to belong to your partner.

Not everyone can understand this approach or take what you have to offer. I once met the President of Associated Press and he said, "Never stop offering, if you are able to offer. I don't mean offer in the sense of selling something, I mean offer something for your positive energy, from your work, something from your nice words and professionalism. Always offer!" Some people will not always take this the right way, and some people cannot take so you have to offer them once, twice or maybe three times! In my life I have never ignored the small people in order to get to the higher levels, each step is very important. For example you go to an office and meet the secretary, she is not as powerful as the person you have come to meet that is sitting next door, but you will benefit if you treat her nicely or say something nice and acknowledge her. This is very important as she will never forget you and in the future she will always give you precedence because you treated her well, it's the same for each level, respect is very important.

We renovated the entire Kremlin, it is a very beautiful building and not many people have had the same opportunities as me, which I give thanks to god for. I initially met very small people there and gradually my connections moved me up to the top and now Mr Yeltsin is my very good friend. There was a lot of miss-interpretation surrounding our friendship, which is not true, today everything has been verified, and all the documentation has been proven to be accurate. I have a very good relation with Yeltsin today, he is a fantastic man and perhaps in 50 years the Russians themselves will appreciate what he did for them, not Gorbachov but Yeltsin, he will remain a very important man. I have very good relations with many people particularly Mr. Puchma in Azerbaijan and Mr. Nazerbayev in Kazakhstan. I also have a very good relationship with Bill Clinton he is a fantastic man.

Until today I have fulfilled all of my obligations and fulfilled them honestly. The people that work for my company have to feel like they are at home. At the moment for example, if you were to ask me why have I been working for 4 months on this hotel site that we are developing in Lugano, when I could be relaxing in Mallorca or Barbados? I would say I am here every-day and enjoy eating in the same restaurants as my workers as they know that I am with them. I don't like playing the boss or the big chief. I want to be a friend with my people, so that they feel they are able to talk to me or ask me personally for time off. I have no problem with this, I want them to be relaxed, if they cannot come to work and are not needed then they can ask me to stay at home with their families. They are able to ask me personally and these relations are very important to me.

Could you tell us something about the hotel that you are building here in Lugano?

This hotel will be one of the most luxurious hotels in Switzerland it is also the first hotel that we have built in the country. We have experienced a few confrontations with the construction Association here that represents the local construction companies because usually work for the state is usually divided equally amongst these companies. I provided my own capital and started constructing my hotel without the help of this association; I am not a member of this association and consider my money to be my money, which does not belong to the state. The other companies cannot believe how quickly we have managed to work in just 4 months as we are blessed with a very strong organisation and workforce. My workers are not obliged to but they choose to work on a Saturday because they want to and this is their choice! Not being a member of this association has caused us a few problems as I am breaking into the market, but I have the support of the government and the mayor of Lugano who is supervising the construction of the hotel. It is called Hotel Olivella and will be a full hotel complex with 130 rooms, 3 restaurants 2 swimming pools, a congress centre and it will employ between 230-40 people by September; the opening will be on August 30th on my birthday.

Mabetex has expanded extensively in central Asia, I believe in China also; can you tell us a little more about you business activities in this area of the world?

We are already working in China as we have constructed five medical factories as well as pharmaceutical branches. We have a lot of work in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Central Asia. Central Asia is a big market for us regarding construction work; we built the new capital of Kazakhstan and finished our work in just two years with 12,000 people. We kept our promise and completed over 360,000sq meters of government buildings and other civil constructions I have now been made an honorary citizen of Kazakhstan. We also have started working in the country's new capital Astana and are creating a modern business and finance centre. Astana was a small village, which they now want to make the financial centre of the country. We have approximately 6000 people working in Kazakhstan, we also own a tourism and airline company, and a very prestigious shopping centre in the centre of Astana that covers over 22,000 square metres.

We also work in Uzbekistan; we built the city hall and the presidential palace as well as city banks hotels and academies. We have good markets in Asia, Russia and also in Siberia in Yakutsk where we have practically built everything from hospitals, factories and government buildings.

Let's talk about Kosovo, which is currently in the reconstruction phase. Mabetex has pledged to be actively involved in this reconstruction. Although Mabetex has achieved great success not many people know that it is a Kosovar founded company.

The problem is that Albanians are not used to the concept of private and successful businessmen. Kosova used to be communist society and still carries that mentality. At present we cannot initiate any small projects, we have started to buy land and own approximately 30 hectares, when we have permission we will start building with our own money. Of course my brother Selim Pacolli is in Prishtina and no doubt he has told you about our project there, which is valued at 860 million dollars. This will be to construct a business-shopping centre, with offices and underground parking including an orphanage. I build orphanages everywhere I go, children are my future and my salvation. This is our initiative for Kosova, although the Kosovars have already had their chance to benefit from us because immediately after the war we came with our civil engineering solutions for rebuilding the centre of Prishtina. We submitted our plans and only asked to manage the buildings until the day that we saw a return on our investment. In total we submitted three proposals, one for a shopping centre, which now serves as the KFOR HQ as well as the new telecommunication building. These were our proposals and each one was rejected. So we went to Gjakova, where we used to work a lot before the war and signed a contract for building a shopping centre again we proposed to mange the site until we got our investment capital back.

I am always for internationalisation you can only profit from it. The internationals present in Kosova for example know that within 1-2 years they will leave and perhaps be sent to somewhere like Afghanistan. In my opinion these people would probably prefer to use this time in order to earn money and keep it in their pockets. After they leave however and I may be wrong, I do not think that they will think of or have an interest in the future of Kosova anymore. This is only what I have seen or what I have heard for example this scandal involving KEK and millions of Euros, these problems exist everywhere and cannot always be stopped. I don't understand why we aren't able too properly reconstruct buildings in the city centre; there is a lack of organisation and priorities. After the war for example it was very fashionable to build petrol stations throughout Kosova, now it is fashionable to build swimming pools, but what they don't seem to realise is that in Kosova there are water problems. Kosova needs to regulate and control these things, prioritise and correct information needs to be given, you have probably heard of the "Russian Gate" incident, well this is probably the reason that I have not received permission for construction projects in my own country, when I am here to help.

In Kosova there were requests that I return and run for president. I know that I have a lot of sympathy from the nation. Many other people also knew this and started a campaign against me, for example the local Newspaper published propaganda against me everyday, and my response to them would be, "Ok people you are Kosovars I can only forgive you." Believe me, my business intentions in Kosova are not to lose money but at the same time not to profit from Kosova either. We have nothing there, I know that a lot of help came after the war and that Kosova received help and money from UNMIK and other International organisations but this "free help" will not last forever. To be able to earn money you have to produce and there is no production in Kosova. How can you generate money and capital when you have no production and no services? If I woke up one day and wanted to make 100 Francs, I would have to go to work, if I didn't have this money I couldn't just wait for someone to give it to me. Without production in Kosova you cannot circulate money, without money circulation you cannot have a positive balance. We have to regulate this today and start producing; we have zero export as everything is imported.

Could you tell us what you feel most proud about regarding your professional career as well as your personal life?

The difference between you and me is not that different. I am Albanian, born in Kosova and a resident of Switzerland you are also a world citizen. We are the same. In the morning we both get up and take a shower. What I am or how I am in my own eyes, my heart and spirit are the same person, the same man and the same boy that I was when I was young. I love to be with my people, every night I finish my work and I invite my friends and family to eat. My spirit is very young I am 50 years old and I believe that today I have reached my most interesting. Why am I so happy you may ask? I am happy because I can wake up in the morning and thank god that I am able to do something for others and this makes me very happy. Of course I am also very happy that I am Kosovar; if you make a friend there you will always remain in their heart.