Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama at the World Congress of Oncologists in Tirana:
Good evening everyone!
I’ll switch somehow from a long and boring speech prepared by my collaborators, with data and statistics on cancer in Albania, to a quicker, I hope, salute in English to all of you, starting with a due expression of gratitude to the honorary President, Massimo D’Alema, who represents many things for this country and also for me personally, and who has done something very special and very new in promoting this Congress to us, which makes me accept the great honour of being co-President in this special event. And I hope very much that beyond discussions in this room, you have had the chance to have look outside and feel the city, the country, which has been developing rapidly for several years now.
I’ve had a personal experience with cancer, and exactly 11 years ago I had to fight with an extremely horrible reality for me and my family, because I learnt that my son was affected by cancer. The lesson I learnt from this transformative experience was great in many aspects. But one of the things that I had to learn the hard way had to do with a big difference that knowledge makes when you deal with cancer. And when we talk about countries, they do not differ from what they have, but more from what they know. And the more they know, the better they are.
Albania is a country full of natural resources, and if we compare what we have been given by nature, by God, for those who believe in God, with what much more developed and wealthier countries have been given, for sure there is no competition. We are richer. But what makes them be more much developed and richer than us in terms of what people have is knowledge. Therefore this Congress and such gatherings are fundamental in this regard, for they bring immense opportunities for knowledge. And the more we know in this country, the better it will be for everything that has to do with our efforts to transform the country for good in all sectors.
The second thing I would like to underline is that in poor countries, where struggles are everywhere and there is a permanent sense of emergency because of the need to deal with things that happen all the time, in circumstances where institutions are not yet there strongly participating in a sustainable development process, there are two things that are always missing: Prevention and maintenance.
And when it comes to health, prevention is of course absolutely the key. But when it comes to decide about next year’s budget, what does always remain last, unfortunately, is prevention. This is what our tradition has shown in preparing the budget for next year, and this what we have been trying to change. And for the first time since 25 years, we have engaged a very important package of money for free check-up for the population aged 45-60, precisely because we want to open a new chapter in terms of a deeper understanding of the public health situation and also prevention. It would be better, if we extended this more, and we will try to do it with next year’s budget. But so far, the first results we have got are very revealing that we have been able to understand much more about the general situation, and people have started to know things that they did not know about themselves, about their health, and have started to take care of themselves before things become impossible.
On the other hand, I think we have succeeded somehow where no one has succeeded before, we have banned smoking in public spaces. For those who know a bit about our traditions, it was something like mission impossible, and to us and this country, it seemed much more possible to stop the world producing nuclear weapons than to stop people smoking in public spaces, but it’s done, and now there is many people who know this country, know very well the tradition of this country, when they go to bars and restaurants, they are amazed by this fact, and hopefully with this we have largely helped people not to self-inflict what comes from smoking. At one of the dinners we had with the President and some of the key organizers, I heard terrible things about smoking, and I thought that by banning it we are doing something good.
We are doing everything we can to invest more in the healthcare infrastructure and in the healthcare services, and we have succeeded to change the way we deal with inherited problems, also in terms of funding. We are very much aware that our healthcare system is under financed, and that our budget capacities are not unlimited, but by introducing new ways of financing through the public-private partnership, we have managed to have some very good services in terms of materials for hospitals and also in terms of, for example, care for people who need dialysis. They were suffering for a long time, since they were forced to come to Tirana 3 times a week from across the country, and receive this service only at one single spot, only in a private hospital because public hospitals didn’t provide it. Now things are changing thanks to the public-private partnership, and this is already provided for free. So, in the sense that the state pays for it and people are delivered this service close to their homes, and by the second half of next year there will be a network of centres everywhere in the country.
In addition, we hope that we will see next year a huge change in the whole surgery infrastructure, which also needs a lot of investments. I can proudly say also that wherever we have addressed cancer nowadays, things have improved a lot. I’m not saying that we are providing today one of the best spots with a service quality such that it would amaze all those who come from abroad, but we are certainly offering a service that does not give a death penalty to someone who is affected by cancer, while they are being treated in our hospitals.
So, thank you for once again for being here. I want to thank the President for his kind words, I want to thank all the key organizers, and I hope very much that in these days Albania has worked for you in the same way it works for foreigners, by being a place where you should not come, because this is what the stereotype tells to all those who live abroad and have never come in Albania, but once you’re here, you will always want to come back.
This is what I’ve seen. This is what the President himself can witness, since he came here for the first time in totally different circumstances to help this country to recover from a very difficult situation, and since then he has been here often and always tells me that had he time, he would come here more often. So, I hope that all of you who are here for the first time will be back, not to talk about cancer but to have vacation in a country that is as beautiful as President D’Alema’s grandparents’ Italy.
Once again, thank you very much and I wish you a pleasant evening in Tirana.
