An agreement on bolstering the cyber security in the country was signed today with the leading US-based Jones International Group headed by the renowned American military and political leader James Logan Jones Jr, a former US Marine Corps four-star general, former White House national security advisor, Commander of the Marine Corps, and Commander, United States European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

In his remarks at the ceremony on this occasion, Prime Minister Edi Rama noted that the next challenge is establishing a national cyber defence centre to be an added value for NATO, and provide services beyond the borders of Albania.

Honourable General Jones,

It is truly an exceptional privilege that we are given the opportunity to finalize today a discussion already underway some time ago between the Albanian government and the group led by you, by actually signing an agreement, which paves the way for an intensive cooperation to take all digital capacities and cyber defence system of the Republic of Albania to a whole new level. 

We are certainly very honored to deliver on this with your group, already well known for the tremendous contribution it has made to the bolster of cyber security systems of both the US and other countries, but I would like to tell you that it is also a very special pleasure for us to have been granted the opportunity to cooperate with you personally, taking advantage of your experience and kindness to our country and given that our project is very ambitious, your presence makes it easier and boosts our confidence that we can succeed.

As we already discussed together, this is not simply about building a set of security systems, but about building a comprehensive security system, which in turn has the potential to provide an added value to NATO.

We are pretty aware that in the era we live in, the advantage or chance of less developed countries is unknown in history, unprecedented and unheard of in history, thanks to technology and as a paradox, insufficient development turns into an advantage and technology offers a chance to make extraordinary leaps, as we have already made, I believe, through total transformation of all public services delivery system and the official documents issued in the Albanian state via online services, allowing us to radically change the system this year as we are determined to shut down all the physical service windows so that our citizens are delivered online without them having to leave their homes or without being forced to stay on long queues to obtain public services they are entitled  to and of course thanks to your help to have a totally safe database of these services.

Likewise, our relationship with the United States and NATO as a whole has ushered in a new phase. We are hosting several important investment in the critical infrastructure and in the strategic aspect, including defence investments and spending and in this context we highly appreciate this opportunity to cooperate with you to address the great challenge of setting up a sizeable cyber defence centre, to be in the service of our army, but also all aspects related to the civilian part of society. It is an extraordinary challenge, but we are convinced that with your help, support, and courage not to be afraid of taking a faraway look, we will be able to have a national security centre, to be an added value for NATO, and provide services beyond the borders of the Republic of Albania. 

Most recently, we went through a serious incident, the leak of personal data on the salary of employees in the Republic of Albania, an episode that has happened in all more developed countries, but that also teaches us a lesson that it is not only anonymous cyber attacks we must be protected from, but also the internal attacks committed by infiltrators, hired individuals, even irresponsible ones,. Therefore, I highly appreciate the aspect of our agreement, which has to do with the guarantee that the detrimental capacity of individuals will be much reduced and that a whole system of boosting the quality of human resources throughout the network of people dealing with digital services and cyber security will be put into operation, just as special programs will be put in place that your experience has at its disposal to ensure that the ability of any individual to penetrate the system is very limited as the system itself will be such that it will contain many firewalls.

I think this is very good news today, even for those who were unjustly hurt by the leak of their personal data and in a way, I believe that the leak of personal data on salaries was something bad that happened not only to hurt us, as my grandmother used to say, because all Albanians saw with their own eyes a problem, which today is easier for us than yesterday to address it, in terms of legal and moral relationship of many employers with the state and employees.

In the meantime, all citizens experienced the negative effects of an attack on the cyber system, making today’s agreement even more welcome for them as they come from a fresh harmful experience and today I am convinced, whoever is watching us, welcomes your and the Jones International group involvement in this effort of the Albanian government.

I would so much like to thank you, Mr. General, for coming here personally and for the trust, as well as the courage you give us through your presence. I would like thank all of your team that have clearly demonstrated their worth and usefulness in assisting us to be more protected in our critical energy systems and will assist us now to build a comprehensive approach to the system and make sure together that in a not too distant future, but in the next few years, we are proud of the cyber defence system in place, as a country which is developing very rapidly in terms of technology, but also as a small but proud and always dignified NATO country.

Thank you very much!