Statement by Minister of Finance Arben Ahmetaj, following the meeting of the Council of Ministers:
Hello!
I take this opportunity today to communicate citizens a very important decision of the Council of Ministers, and also to explain the importance of this decision-making, some economic references that indicate how much reforms are linked with each other.
Today, the Council of Ministers has passed both financially and in terms of other respects the judicial reform package, having as its most important aspect the funding of the judicial reform.
It is noteworthy that it has been a long and difficult negotiation process with the Parliamentary Committee on Justice Reform. Given the importance of justice reform, today the package was passed as a whole, with a necessary financial cost of additional 1.8 billion, in view of all the elements that need to be improved in the justice system, in terms of the financial format to which I refer. For citizens, the package has to do with increased wages, with the increased number of employees and, above all, with the cost of establishing new institutions that are referred to in the constitutional package of justice reform. Well, today the government passed the full funding of the justice reform.
The entire atmosphere of a very important reform, such as justice reform, must be naturally linked with the image of the country and the improvement of economic indicators. We have said that reforms will be reflected over the years in the Albanian economy, in foreign investments, in the public trust in the first place, and in the trust of investors.
I take this opportunity to inform citizens that economic indications that supply the trend of economic growth are all positive.
Today, citizens have seen a release in terms of Albania’s competitiveness. To put it more simply for the citizens, Albania’s competitiveness has to do with how much attractive is the country in terms of doing business, and how much easy the life of a local or foreign entrepreneur is in Albania.
I must say that this document has been made by a very important and prestigious forum which is the World Economic Forum, and it refers to the global competitiveness index 2016-2017. Albania has a serious improvement of 13 places, from 93 it has improved by 13 places and is ranked 80th. We have left behind regional countries such as Greece, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, but of course, we have a long way to go yet. I cannot help but mention that this is no longer a political cliché, but it is a reality that entrepreneurs and citizens accept also because they can see in their everyday life that the business climate has improved, and certainly the country’s economy has begun to reflect this improvement directly, from the macro figures to the everyday details of economic life of families and citizens, and to show you this I brought here the retail trade index. The retail trade index is a very important indirect statistics to show what is happening at the roots of the Albanian economy, which are consumption and buying power. This is not our statistics, i.e. of the government’s, but is an INSTAT statistics, and in the second quarter of 2016 the volume index of sales in retail trade has increased 6.2%, a considerable increase that must be shared with the public. I didn’t mention these elements aimlessly, but to show that all these packages of reforms made so far by the government, culminating with the justice reform, amongst many other good things, aim at improving economy, which will be reflected in the improvement of the daily lives of citizens.
Thank you!
