Young boys and girls in the town of Erseke, including pupils and students, who wish to build their future in their homeland, joined the Prime Minister Edi Rama at the latest meeting to discuss issues concerning education, sports, arts, technology and the investments in these areas, and the fresh employment opportunities that are becoming increasingly diverse also thanks to the youth support programmes.
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-We aspire to join the European Union and therefore we need to improve the level of the citizens’ welfare. A young man in an EU member state enjoys a status of well-being in full contrast to the status of well-being of a young person from Erseka. For us to deliver on this, the government must help and support the youth in Erseke. I would like to express my appreciation for the investment to increase the high school standards, but there are still many problems there, ranging from the material base, the school benches that are outdated. The same goes for the quality of the school laboratories. We lack specific tools to conduct experiments. The school gym has yet to become 100% functional. You said that sports teams have been set up in schools across the country and football pitches have been built, but our high school lacks such a football field. Our high school still lacks internet connectivity and many of us want a youth centre to be set up in Kolonjë and Ersekë too. Let alone the innovation and technology centre. I have a question for you and the mayor: young people are leaving and taking concrete steps to leave the country, and I personally could be one of them. What plan and strategy do the government and local government have to stop “the haemorrhaging” of young people leaving without completing high school or still attending the high school. And does the government have any plans to convince young people to return and invest in their homeland.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: Very well. I would like to thank you for touching on almost every issue, ranging from the school problems to the national politics and you did so in a very correct manner. However, when we draw lines of comparison with the EU one should bear in mind the time when the EU member states embarked on the path we have just embarked on and we were too late to do so and by making such a comparison we certainly realize that we can’t achieve the same EU living standards right now, because we have been lacking the time that has been available to them. We lack the legacy and the tradition of consolidated state institutions they used to have and we have to run even faster. However, on the other side, it is equally true that Albania’s progress given the time unit and relative to where we started from is absolutely incomparable with many EU member states that have made such a progress very gradually and during a very long time.
But, on the other hand, I believe it is the facts that are already starting to help us. It was until a few years ago when there were no facts to help us, today we have facts that help us to say that it is not true that there are no options here and that the only option is to leave the country. This is completely untrue. I already said that setting off for an EU country or another country around the world in search of a better life, is definitely the most natural thing one can do. Albania is no longer an isolated country as it used to be under the communist regime. Albania is fortunately a country respecting and being granted free movement. The world is getting smaller and the people’s movement from one country to another and to the EU member states is part of this new era now. There are certain areas within the EU where people are leaving and moving for work or a better quality of life in somewhat wealthier parts of the bloc. It suffices looking at southern Italy, since we are talking about the rural areas, but the same is the case with the villages in the EU member states. Italian villages and rural areas are encountering the very same problem. The same goes for the remote rural areas and villages in Greece, Spain, Portugal and elsewhere around the world. But what matters most is the thing I was speaking about.
Building a guesthouse by reconstructing and transforming an old private family home means providing yourself with the opportunity to earn much more than one could earn from hard work in any European country, where one can move to take up a normal job position. I am not certainly referring to individuals who can become very successful as entrepreneurs or professionals, but I am talking about taking up and doing normal jobs. Building and running a guesthouse certainly takes a lot of hard work, but the same goes for someone working for an enterprise or an individual abroad.
Medicinal plant harvesting and building medicinal plants’ collection enterprises means that you can generate many times more than what you can earn by taking up and doing an ordinary job in Germany or England. This is for sure as it is simple arithmetic.
Therefore, hard work is the only way out. Hard work and patience are the only way out.
As for the issue highlighted by Minister Bora, someone your age, if willing to join and access the realm of technology, he or she can do so without having to leave their homes. They can take up higher paying jobs working for leading companies all over the world without having to leave their homes at all and they can receive much higher remuneration than any of us here. And again this is not something I have been dreaming about or something that has happened somewhere else. It has and is happening right here.
All these said, I don’t mean that anyone seeking to leave the country is making the biggest mistake in their lives. Absolutely not! However, the other option urging people to leave because the country offers no opportunity is not true at all, it is just an impression. Both are possible in the two directions. However, choosing between an ordinary job abroad and an investment project in the areas I already mentioned and I don’t mean major investment projects, but investments that one can afford, especially now that the government supports financially these type of investments and if there is enough time for you to make such a decision, I would never suggest you and someone your age to leave the country. Of course, it is something completely different if you enrol in an international university with the support of your parents. Paying smugglers to cross the Channel and reach England, although you can invest that amount of money in a small business and agritourism business, is a disastrous and a stupid decision.
I used to be an emigrant and I know what I am talking about. My emigration history was not a successful one, but I am not calling on others not to try it. Everybody can decide about it themselves. Everyone is free to make any decision they want to. No state, no government can tell people what to do, but you should never pay smugglers and opt to emigrate illegally by paying a fortune and ending up in the unknown. This shouldn’t happen. On the other hand, nobody should leave the country thinking that no opportunities are offered here.
As to the comments you made about the school, we have founded basketball and volleyball teams, and not football teams. Things are somehow different when it comes to football. Establishing basketball and volleyball teams represents an effort to renew a sports movement we deem very important for the sports and physical culture to include schoolchildren and students in local and national sports events and tournaments. I do of course know that a much larger and better school gym is needed and that’s why we have launched a series of investment projects that will be finalized gradually and not simultaneously.
Thank you very much!
