Prime Minister Edi Rama today presided over an expanded meeting with senior officials of local and international chambers of commerce operating in Albania to explore ways to improve business climate in the country and strengthen dialogue in a bid to enhance mutual contribution to the country’s social and economic development.

The government head put emphasis on the importance of a more dynamic and continued interaction with business that needs to be channelled through the chambers of commerce.

The Premier engaged in a conversation with the business community representatives, who tabled their recommendations to improve the business environment, while underscoring the need to improve legislation regulating the chambers of commerce and align national legislation with that of the most developed countries around the world.

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I would like to focus on a few issues, primarily on the need to review the legislation on the chambers of commerce. I think time is ripe for us to improve national legislation and align it with the best standards set by the most developed countries or the developing countries like Albania, but which are way too advanced in this regard. We have obsolete laws on functioning of the chambers of commerce.

Second, I would like to note that it is really indispensable, in my view, for the interaction with the business community to be channelled mostly through the chambers of commerce and this interaction is steady and dynamic. It is for this reason that after a previous meeting we have already had with some of the chambers of commerce we wish to discuss with you and build a format of systematic dialogue with business community, also as part of the transparency with entire business community, with the public, the international partners, as well as with the bodies involved in conducting surveys and reports on the real results in our efforts to improve business climate in the country. Business environment unquestionably is marred by problems. However, it would suffice for everyone to take a look at the steps that have been taken to accelerate, ease and transform countless processes to transit from the previously tedious processes, when it took people and businesses to wait for hours on long queues, delays and bribery to obtain public services, whereas the public service delivery is now a totally web-based system and it is impossible that this cannot be reflected on the reports drafted by the chambers of commerce themselves. It is unbelievable how one can still fall prey to the non-professional surveys, to put it bluntly, non-professional reports that actually harm and threaten our common work, threaten the country’s image and threaten the business climate itself. This is incredible.

We have made all efforts and we will keep making more efforts, because this is a daily process to build a more dynamic and more transparent interaction with business. However, I think it is up to us to urge the chambers of commerce to demonstrate a higher sense of responsibility while drafting reports on the business climate.

This demand of mine has nothing to do with the government. It has nothing to do with any government need. My demand is just about a sense of more responsibility when it comes to the relations of both sides with this country, the relations with the business community and our shared need to strengthen business communities further. Another aspect I would like to highlight during this meeting has to do with the energy crisis. To this end, I would like to put emphasis on the need to encourage businesses to harness solar energy as a power generation source in order to meet their needs for electricity. Business can spearhead the efforts to diversify energy sources.

I would also like to say that we will launch an intense process of contacting the companies to inform them about the conditions and the business climate in Albania.

It is imperative that they interact, it is imperative that companies are informed and it is imperative that companies participate in this process by funding nothing more than the human resources they want for themselves, providing opportunities to talented girls and boys who lack financial means to pay for these training programs so that they can develop these courses and then work in their respective companies.

And of course, we should give many more opportunities to girls and boys to be employed and take up the best paying jobs, as a way to mutually increase the business capacity, but also create new jobs.