In the premises of Tirana Industrial Park, Prime Minister Edi Rama, accompanied by the Minister of Economy, Culture, and Innovation, Blendi Gonxhja, held a discussion today with businesses and employees on the strategy and policies for employment and workforce skills development in an increasingly dynamic labor market, significantly influenced by the rapid development of technology — an expanded discussion to build together a stronger, more sustainable, and inclusive labor market, with a focus on education and professional training as a fast and secure path to employment.

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Prime Minister Edi Rama:

When I entered here, I saw Arjela, who is in the front row. She is the founder and leader of a very bold enterprise that, from the very first moment, could have been seen as a kind of adventure. We are working with Arjela to build a strategic partnership with one of the largest companies in the world in the field of military industry, and I believe that yesterday we managed to formalize this partnership in its general lines, which I believe will be made public soon. In fact, this will bring to Albania not only hundreds of millions in investments in the military industry, which we are creating from scratch after many difficult periods that you are all aware of—there’s no need to take up your time on that—but it will make Albania, thanks to Arjela and her company, the reference company with the support of this large partner company. The products will be “Made in Albania,” and Albania will export the latest generation military vehicles to other markets.

This is something that is happening today, but it wouldn’t have been possible just a few years ago.

Additionally, there are several other initiatives in the military industry that are in progress, and I am very optimistic that they will be realized one after the other. These will give us the opportunity not only to produce for our Armed Forces but also to manufacture here in Albania for our own needs, by building strong strategic partnerships with major players in this sector.

However, if we look at the overall growth in production, when we took office, the total production was below 10 billion euros, and today, our national production is approaching 25 billion euros.

On the other hand, we will increase the minimum wage to 500 euros in January 2026, and we have decided to announce this immediately in June. But I want to make it very clear that a specific category is excluded, which is increasingly smaller in number. The minimum wage is already higher in Albania de facto. For example, in this area, there is no minimum wage of 500 euros.

At the same time, we want to move forward with the average wage and raise the average wage from 830 euros within the fourth term to 1000 euros in the private sector.

Moreover, today we need to look with much more optimism at the wage growth in the public sector. Wages have increased, and they will increase even more. This has given us a fact in hand: by raising wages in the public sector, we have also attracted the private sector into this process.

The last point I want to touch on is the necessity of strengthening the focus on vocational education. We are very aware that increasing the capacity of vocational education is essential for companies and for the economy.

Facts from all countries with developed vocational education show that the majority of entrepreneurs in those countries come from vocational education backgrounds.

Thank you very much!