Speech by Prime Minister Edi Rama during the presentation of the Diaspora and Immigration Project:

First of all, and not formally because I consider the work done extremely fruitful, I would like to thank my friend and colleague Pandeli Majko, Minister of State for Diaspora, who has not only organized this very representative roundtable, but has made it possible to find today in this roundtable an important document as a starting point for a process which we have the ambition to take forward and to successfully close in its most primary aspect, the thorough registration of all Albanians wherever they live.

I would like to thank especially the representatives of the Socialist Movement for Integration. It is no secret that we would like to have here also the representatives of the main opposition, the Democratic Party, with the same readiness and with the same sense of common interest with which representatives of this part of the opposition responded to the invitation. This is one of those topics that have no access either on the left or on the right, but have a unifying national approach.

I thank especially, not because tradition has always required so, the representatives of friendly partner countries who are here. I am very confident that the diverse experience, but far richer than ours, of many of the countries represented here, is a source which we can use in view of this process through our present friends and through the structures of their countries. A process where we do not consider today’s meeting as a target, but just as the beginning of a wider discussion on a serious document that is open to suggestions, additions, open to cutbacks.

We’ve put out goodwill in this process, but we are also aware that we are far from being equipped with all the necessary knowledge to make the process more qualitative from a substantive point of view. For this reason, even the others who are invited here, together with friends in the first round of the table, if I can say so, are here because they are considered as a point of reference for what they know and for what they can give in this process, to fill the gap of which we are aware.

There is no doubt that this is a multifaceted process, and the profitability of this process for Albania can be considered as much wider than in one, two or three aspects alone. It is out of question that, given that this process is aimed at something which, I believe, we are the last ones to have not met compared to other countries around us, or countries to which we want to resemble, namely the direct involvement of all Albanian emigrants in the most important decision-making process in the country through the vote. This is a very strong reason so that no political party represented in Parliament is absent in this process, shows or makes it understood or misunderstood, that it is not interested in the vote of Albanians outside of the homeland.

On the other hand, if there is in Albania, for a thousand and one reasons, which in our view are not objective, the forces that contest the elections, there is no remedy more effective than the exponential increase in the process involvement and participation in voting through the involvement of Albanians beyond the borders of Albania, which are far from any possibility to influence within the country and are very close to the country to positively influence decision-making.

Obviously, the basis of this process is the census, which unfortunately has been neglected for a quarter of a century. The promise to register our Diaspora has accompanied the political forces one after the other, campaign after campaign, and has been a key promise of the government created in 2005. But the first serious step towards the realization of this major goal was taken only last year. The disregard of previous authorities has been documented. Suffice it to tell you that the Albanian Institute of Diaspora, the only institution in this field, which was created in Albania in 1996, was merged in January 2013 without leaving room to anything else and without actually fulfilling anything in this area.

Fortunately, this institution was reorganized a year later as a separate directorate at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by taking in full consideration its inadequacy and the necessity to structurally strengthen the Albanian state in view of this process and in the service of this major subject.

We are determined to perform the registration next year, which symbolically coincides with the Year of Skanderbeg, but in all cases it is a duty we have assumed and believe, the way we are organized, we will be able to accomplish it during the year next, at least to the greatest extent.

Our aim is that at the Second Diaspora Summit we really have a concrete result in the field of registration of Albanians abroad, as well as manage to materialize some of the major measures that apply to this important reform and are described in the document presented by the Minister of State.

The unification of consular services between Albania and Kosovo also serves the same topic and rationalizes this approach. Diaspora is included as a key element in our Country Development Strategy, “The 2015-2020 Strategy”. The unification of our policies, together with the state of Kosovo and the co-ordination of projects dedicated to the diaspora, is a necessity related to what every reasonable mind understands, which is that we cannot separate Albanians outside the borders of these two states in two different entities.

The National Internship Program, open to the Albanian youth wherever in the world, is just one of the programs that we want to develop in view of this national project.

The implementation of the Digital Consulate project, with 36 fully digitalized services; the organization of the Diaspora Summit itself, as a new co-ordinating institution where Albanians can find the channels needed to communicate on various issues and areas; the new relationship of the state with the diaspora that will be embedded in the establishment of an Albanian Diaspora Council, are part of the same effort.

This Council will be a central organization of co-representation. It will discuss and suggest about aspects that intertwine in the cooperation between state politics and all organizations, or different representations of the Albanian Diaspora. In this structure state institutions will work together with institutions consolidated over the years, as an expression of the will of the Albanians in the Diaspora to be organized on the basis of thematic groups, or with different approaches.

Here is also an attempt to understand together how we can build the National Diaspora Agency more appropriately, given the experience of the past as well as the experiences of other countries. This Agency will be a reference point for national policies, but also for the inputs that our state must necessarily collect in view of the policy-making, in its entirety and in view of integration into the political process and in the economic and social development processes of the country in particular.

We strongly believe that the Diaspora Register is not just a matter of counting and voting issues, but much more than that. It also provides Albania with a database of human resource capacities in every area, and creates a new opportunity to use Albanian knowledge, which is today completely decentralized and has not just one centre, it has not only Albania, but it is located scattered where the settlements of Albanians outside the homeland are, and who contribute to different countries with their knowledge and experience.

Today, we are also aware that not only time is ripe – time is more than ripe – but that there is an increasingly sensitive interest of the Diaspora to invest in Albania. A survey conducted by Harvard University with 1.000 Albanian-Americans, has revealed that they would invest $ 25 million if there were a safe path and if they believed this path. You do the maths, by devising this amount in the whole dimension of the Albanian-American Diaspora. 100 of them have expressed willingness to invest at least $ 100,000, if they have an efficient mechanism for investing these funds.

So, even in terms of economic and social development, the diaspora is an untapped source and today we believe that the conditions are ripe, not just due to our need but also because of the interest of the Diaspora, to make a new step, of course by structuring the mechanisms and by finding ways to materialize this step through direct investment of Diaspora in Albania.

There is, of course, another aspect, among many others, which is that of the effort that the Albanian state, this government has made and is continuing to make for pensions, given a considerable number of Albanian emigrants who are now interested in various countries in having this agreement entered. We have actually made some deals and discussions have started.

Even on the last visit to Italy, we have received encouraging information from the group of Italian MPs dealing with this issue, in cooperation with the respective department in the Italian government. There is progress. It is not an easy topic, it is about big amounts, but we hope and believe that sooner or later this issue will be resolved. At least, we are extremely encouraged from the last visit because we have seen concrete progress in this regard.

Talks have started also with Greece, but this is a process that requires patience and time. Even the benefit that Albanians from abroad have from these agreements made from Canada to Belgium and beyond, who are already part of those Diasporas, have been included in the pension insurance scheme.

We believe a lot in this project. We believe a lot that it is about an extraordinary potential of knowledge and development. We believe that the lost time can serve us to rush and not take this process with slow steps because we are convinced that the experience exists and is diverse and very rich. Suffice it to be willing enough to learn from the experience of other countries from the neighbouring countries that have structured before us the mechanisms to have a more active interaction with the Diaspora, to other more remote but very friendly countries, – such as Israel that has excellent models in this respect, or other countries. We do not know it all, and we will certainly find ourselves in front of other, unfamiliar experiences that can be extremely valuable.

Many thanks for this organization and for your presence!

Let me conclude with one of the many wise things Faik Konica, a professional immigrant, has said: “History teaches that all major changes have always been grounded in two factors: immigrants and a small, innate or intellectual elite within the country.” I believe that both of these factors are present today in Albania, and our will and persistence to materialize this process is enough, by creating a new framework of relations between Albania and Kosovo together with Albanians living outside their countries.