An Agriculture and Regional Cooperation Forum took place as part of the Open Balkan agenda in Tirana today, bringing together agricultural entrepreneurs, as well as academics, rectors and deans of agricultural universities of the Open Balkan initiative participating countries.
Prime Minister Edi Rama noted that the new agreements specifically on agriculture sector will totally transform the way how the countries interact, as hurdles to the individuals involved in this sector will be practically removed, significantly easing exchanges among the countries. “Now the path is totally open and it is totally a border-free activity,” the Prime Minister said.
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Hello everyone and welcome to all of those from the two countries that joined us in Tirana today. I am glad to host a themed forum with entrepreneurs and academics with an emphasis on agriculture.
There were at least three reasons for this.
First of all, agriculture is a vital sector to our economies and we are doing our best, here in Albania, not only to grow the sector, but also to sophisticate it, if you will, by introducing new technologies and so on and so forth.
Second, at the Belgrade Summit a month ago, we urged the European Union to explore ways how the bloc can assist our countries to gradually gain access to the community funds. To deliver on this step, we need to boost investment and our efforts to modernize this sector and offer stimuli to farmers and agricultural producers in all stages of the agricultural cycle and exporting to other markets.
We strongly believe that regional cooperation can profoundly help in this latter phase and this is the reason why the economy and trade ministers and the agriculture ministers have joined us in this discussion.
I am really pleased that we have signed this important agreement on this sector, as we have been facing the worries, the demands and the blame from the people in this sector, who trade between our countries for years now.
All these agreements will radically change the way of interaction between the countries, because practically, under this agreement, we have removed the obstacles that have made life difficult for the people working in this sector, when they try to cross the borders between our countries.
To many outside this hall, this may sound something very technical, but I am totally sure it sounds not technical at all to the group attending this forum here and to many others, who are not present here, but who belong to a much larger group of farmers, agricultural producers and exporters, as these agreements practically seek to tackle the most essential issues concerning their cross-border activity.
I am sure that today, not very significant but still or yet a considerable number of people, companies that export their products from Albania to North Macedonia or Serbia or import product from these countries to Albania, will be happy because the road is totally open for them now and it is an activity totally without borders.
This is an incredible accomplishment if we take into account the fact that this very basic and vital platform for them was not built for so many years, even under the Berlin Process and after all the discussions and drafts on the Common Regional Market.
Today we practically established the common regional market by signing these agreements and individuals and companies involved in this sector will start reaping benefits starting in January next year.
Signing documents with a direct impact on the citizens’ lives is specifically encouraging and the documents we signed today are really as such.
Finally, I am very happy to see prominent deans and rectors of universities, faculties of agriculture of our countries joining us today, because we all hope – I mean the three of us here and all the political stakeholders in this room, the cabinet ministers – we hope that this first meeting will mark just the beginning of a business between you, together, by realizing that it is time now to invest much more in know-how transfer, in agricultural innovation, technology and to absolutely share real expertise with our government prioritizing fostering regional and international university cooperation, with a view to making know-how-based policies of this knowledge-based regime.
I would ask everyone, from now on, to open a common path of exchanges and to structure the cooperation, with the aim of developing joint programs, with the aim of exchanging students and with the aim of involving the agricultural sector in this path of yours.
Thank you very much and allow me give the floor to President Vucic and then Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, so that we can complete the common message to all of you who are here that we will do our best to support all of you, to support all our people who are involved in interactions between countries in the field of food production, import and export of agricultural products.
Do not hesitate to come directly to us for everything we need to know and everything we need to consider, as greater efforts should be made to make your life easier and to make this common path more efficient as we strive to go towards the future as soon as possible.
Thank you very much everyone. Welcome! The floor is yours, Mr. President.
President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic: Thank you everyone! Thank you again for being here together. I believe that you all clearly see we are very eager to cooperate on various fields and agriculture is one of the most important areas that we will address together. This sector is not only about the free movement of food products nor only about cooperation regarding various commodities or fruits and vegetables and it is not just an exchange of food products between our three countries, but it is about cooperation on artificial intelligence domain, robotics, software, information technology, all of which can further support agriculture and its future development.
Given that we are talking about trade, Serbia’s exchanges of food products with Albania are valued at around 70 million euros, and around 230 million euros with North Macedonia. However, the exchanges are very low and I am confident that the trade exchanges will increase to over one billion euros soon, should we do everything right. I think that the agreement on veterinary medicine and food safety means more safety for the products we consume and for agriculture, it means more accelerated procedures, including lower costs and shorter wait hours at border crossing points.
Likewise, we will also sign additional accords on harmonization of the procedures and we believe that the procedures for the private sector will be further streamlined.
We are also working on certain criteria regarding transport of food products, which do not require transport by refrigerated trucks, and I must also say that there is great potential for further growth of this trade volume and, as already said, we expect the agriculture exchanges alone to top over one billion euros in a few years. Just think how important this is for the GDPs of our countries and this will not happen after 100 years, but in a matter of a few years.
I would also like to add that many of our institutions and organizations should forge closer relations and I fully support Edi’s idea that our governments, and not only state institutions, but also other stakeholders should come together in a broader meeting in Skopje or elsewhere in North Macedonia, and then in Belgrade, as we have to bring together all the stakeholders for everyone to clearly understand the exchange idea and the best practices so that we can yield best possible results in the future. Thank you!
Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Zoran Zaev: Dear Edi, dear Aleksandar, dear ministers, representatives of the Commerce Chambers from the region, and dear academics, as well as representatives from our state institutions and our teams working on this initiative. It is a great pleasure to attend this forum and express in the meantime my strong support for the regional cooperation on agriculture and food safety as part of the Open Balkan initiative.
Through this Tirana meeting, we can show concrete results that create conditions for cooperation on these areas so that we can move forward faster, with a new dynamic thanks to these agreements that we have already signed and we will sign in the future.
The agro-food industry is one of the most important ones in the Western Balkans in terms of trade and industrial volume, as well as in terms of employment.
Figures speak for themselves and for the reason why this sector needs our full support. Agricultural activities account for 24% in the Western Balkans, down from an average of 50% in the European Union and clear how important the role of agriculture and industry is in our region.
Agriculture also plays a very important role in the economy of the Western Balkans. As a primary sector, agriculture accounts for 12% of the total GDP of our region. This figure is high compared to the average of the European Union, where agriculture accounts for 1.56% of total GDP. These figures clearly show the fact that in principle, for most countries in the region, agriculture continues to be one of the main drivers of economic growth in our countries.
It is also clear that agribusinesses have the highest short-term impact on employment, generating twice as many jobs as other sectors of the economy and because of this great potential, regional cooperation on food industry and agriculture, given the geographical distribution of this sector throughout the Western Balkans and cross-sectoral links, it is clear that this industry can become a very strong engine for our economies, but also for the diversification of this sector. This is the reason why we encourage regional cooperation. We must be highly motivated by the potential this sector offers for growth, as well as for the creation of new jobs. Regional cooperation in this sector can provide Western Balkan countries with access to the European Union market, not only through lower prices, but most importantly as a region providing healthy and organic food products.
The figures I already provided show high potential for cooperation in this area, so that trade exchange is possible. It is important that we cooperate with each other, but also work together to promote the highest possible standards.
Relaxing the customs procedures for free movement of goods is indeed one of the key aspects of economic growth. This is the reason why we are primarily focusing on these areas, namely streamlining the customs procedures, reducing the wait time at the border, while mutually recognizing the certificates issued by the three signatories so that transport of goods is faster and more efficient.
The border checks will focus on the final destination only and we will try to establish equal quality and safety standards so that we become highly competitive in the market.
We also believe that we need to further deepen collaboration among our institutions, exchange experience and ideas about the future. Allow me to add something else before I conclude my remarks.
Foreign direct investment in agriculture are still very low given the sector’s potential, and therefore I see here a huge potential and for these reasons, agriculture is a sector we must pay much higher attention and therefore in the Open Balkans initiative we talk about how we can adapt common policies to attract foreign direct investments in the region. It is clear that the chances, the opportunities exist and they are great, and therefore I am convinced that this forum will provide us with ideas and other initiatives to promote regional cooperation in agriculture for the benefit of our citizens. Thank you!
