From emigrants, to successful entrepreneurs. This is the story of two brothers, Nik and Sander Nikolli, who left Albania with only what they were wearing, and within two decades managed to set up a successful aluminum company in Milan, the “Koni Group” with branches in New York, Abu Dhabi, and now also in Albania. Like many other immigrants who want to invest in their homeland, Niko and Sandri wanted to invest their money in Albania, but it was impossible for them to do so until 2013. Because of the endless obstacles and bureaucracies in Albania, it was easier for them to open their business branches initially in New York and Abu Dhabi.
Accompanied by the Minister of Education, Lindita Nikolla, Prime Minister Rama spent this afternoon with the two entrepreneurs in their business premises in Lezha, and learned about their work as immigrants, the efforts and difficulties they had to go through until they managed to launch their business also in Albania. They are now satisfied with the progress of their business. “90% of the work process here is for export”, one of the brothers said, but both of them pointed out the lack of skilled workforce, of engineers and specialists required for their company. “We have sent some of our workers to Italy for training. We still need to do this because we need technicians for our machineries, and we cannot find skilled persons”, they said.
Prime Minister Rama supports the concern of the brothers Nikolli, as this is a problem raised by many other businesses, but he underlines that this situation inherited over the years, is now taking a turn with the Reform in Vocational Education.
“This is a problem we have inherited over all these years. Nobody thought about harmonizing the vision on how to use the potentials our country has, both in terms of natural resources and the workforce as an important resource. We’ve been saying for 25 years that we are rich, and we really are, but we don’t have oil technicians, we don’t have mine technicians. The first vocational schools have opened recently here, but the foreign companies coming here to explore, bring specialists from abroad. Now vocational education has started to acquire a lot of importance, but we are still far from what we want. We started with 3.000 thousand students attending vocational education, and now we’re at 27 thousand. Enrollments this year have boomed, but we need more schools. Meanwhile, we have envisaged to build 6 major vocational schools”, Prime Minister Rama said.
Minister Nikolla proposed the idea of introducing entrepreneurs like the Nikolli brothers in the program boards of vocational schools, so that they can contribute to the creation of specialists with the right qualification, as there is a high demand in the labor market.
“We will try to establish a good cooperation, so that you can be part of the boards that build the programs”, Minister Nikolla said. The Prime Minister supports this idea, and says that these boards should have access to the program according to the business and market needs. “If you need employees, you can have an impact on the program, so that they can learn the skills in the school, practice them in the enterprise, and therefore be ready to work full-time once they finish school”, the Prime Minister said.
“It is important to know what the business needs”, one of the Nikolli brothers said, “which profession or expertise level is required. We’re investing in the personnel. There are many employment opportunities, but we need to have the right staff .”
The Nikolli Brothers are just one example of successful entrepreneurship stories whose journey started in immigration. If you have the idea, you have the courage to succeed. “Albanian companies in Italy are registered and pay taxes”, the Prime Minister noted. “They paid 3.5 billion Euros in taxes last year. There are approximately 41 thousand Albanian companies, ranging from small to large ones, that pay taxes in Italy.” Meanwhile, a thorough reformation of the business regulatory framework, has improved the business climate and has reduced bureaucracy in the enterprise, and many of these companies have succeeded also in Albania.
