The speech of the Prime Minister Edi Rama on the establishment of “Konfindustria Albania”:

I would like to start today with the last-night victory. However, supposing there was somebody that was suspicious of the “Italianization” of Albania, yesterday, it was the exemplary evidence, not just for the mere fact that the coach is an Italian coach, but even for the way he showed himself in the pitch. A “B” Italy was there to build an impenetrable wall against the greatest pretendents of the European championship.

However, it is just a football match, meanwhile the Italianization of Albania does not occur only in the pitch where the Albanian national team plays, but it is in the pitch of the entire relations of Albania with the world, relations which always start from Italy, not only today, but it has been like this historically.

I sent a message to Matteo Renzi, telling him that I will be present in the event on the birth of the youngest twin of Italian Konfindustria-s, an Albanian twin, which I hope will meet the standard of your expectations, and which will provide an essential push to this fundamental cooperation.

Italy is the most important commercial partner of Albania, because the exchanges between Albania and Italy in the economic field have a very high percentage. They reached approximately 36% of the general amount until April 2016. Even the import-exports have increased. The imports increased by 6% from April of the previous year until April this year. The exports have increased by 20%, meanwhile according to our register for the companies, there are 2600 Italian companies registered in Albania, completely Italian or Italian-Albanian ones, which work in all the sectors of the Albanian economy.

However, there is a very significant data for all of us, that between 2013-2015, the number of the Italians who have visited Albania has increased by 40%, which means we are at a particularly important moment of the cordial relations which have bound us for many years, not just from the years after the fall of the communist regime, but even earlier than that.

In this context, I believe that this event is very important, because Kofindstria now might be an instrument of an immense importance for 3 reasons: for the culture of entrepreneurship, for the recognition it might transmit, but even for the construction of the new bridges between Albania and Italy, in the sense of bringing more investments here as well as more Italian companies.

I always position the culture of the entrepreneurship in the first plan when it comes to expanding the portfolio of the investments that come from abroad, because what the Italian entrepreneurships, or other ones bring, is first of all a culture of entrepreneurship, which is increasing in Albania, but which still needs a lot to get consolidated. Then, it is even the recognition.

I have had the privilege to meet people who have been in Albania for several years and I always think that if they were not here, I am referring to Italian entrepreneurs, the knowledge level would be lower, because they have brought and always bring more knowledge in all the fields.

Of course, the presence of Konfindustria will be important even to continue the fight against stereotypes, against the fears, against the prejudices, which to say the truth, are much fewer in Italy than in other countries of Europe, even because of the fact that we are similar.

What frightens a German, does not frighten an Italian, we have to say this as well. What seems insurmountable to a French, is a game, a very basic thing for an Italian, from all the prospective.  We have learned a lot from you, in all the fields.

However, I think it is a very significant moment for the Albanian economy, from the structural prospective. We have understood, probably too late, that the economic model established on the remittances, on the construction and on the debt which is always getting higher in a general situation of a financial crisis, which has particularly impacted Greece, but not a little even Italy – is an exhausted model.

We are back to another direction to develop a growth model, of sustainable development, based on investments, exports, which means based on the production and on the rational exploration of the domestic resources for an economy that increases sustainably, but which ensures even a sustainable growth.

We are at a point of crucial changes, which of course, needs time to create the necessary impact on the country, but particularly on the family economies.

On the other hand, it is very clear that from the beginning, it is not the matter of just one sector, because what has to do with the economy, does not have to do only with the economy actually, but even with justice, with the way how the country has been organized at an administrative level. It has to do with the education and the guarantees on the titles of the ownership, or with the way how the country creates the resources to pay the pensions and so on. For this reason, we have entered a very painful process of reforms, which is necessary though, starting with the power which was the main problem for us.

The Italian entrepreneurs, who have been here for years might testify the fact that the  more and more dramatic sufficiency  in the sector of energy, from the financial prospective, but even from the administrative one, has created a very big obstacle for a sustainable growth, but even for stimulating the spirit of entrepreneurship to invest more.

Today, we are in a transition moment, between a point where we risked a real failure, not only of the power sector, but even of the financial one, and a point we have not reached yet, to manage this sector with a lot of professionalism and with a spirit towards the future.

However, the sector of power today is very stabilized and on the other hand we also have a reform of liberalization of the trade of energy, which is under development and we think to finalize it in 2019-2020.

We are at a special moment, when the investments in the sector of power are not related only with the part of the private sector, which has always been interested in investing in the hydropower potential of the country, but which have to do even with important public investments to interconnect Albania and to make it an important actor in the regional market, but even to connect it with Europe through Italy.

 

Coming today to Albania and not only to Albania, but even to Serbia and Kosovo and to other countries of our region, does not mean coming just to one country. If 4 or 5 years ago, investing in Albania used to mean investing only in Albania, today a fundamental change is meant, a change which has already occurred from the political prospective at a regional level, which has opened the way to a regional market much wider than the Albanian one or the one in Kosovo, Serbia, Macedonia and so on. Which means that there is always a prospective of growth of the companies which invest in a country such as Albania and to profit even from a process which we are taking forward; the process of removing the barriers, the non-tariff obstacles of the region, to create a region which shall be completely free from the prospective of the economic and trading exchanges.

Of course, the territorial reform has been very important, reducing more than 360 municipalities and communes to just 60 in a very short period of time. The ones who manage the territorial reforms in Italy know what such a thing means. How important it has been to enter a fundamental radical reform of the education system, from two viewpoints, from one side the general education system had to be reformed, the university system, where I have found that about 400 Italian students study. But what I can assure is that, it is not the case of those university degrees of Bossi’s son anymore, because something very important has changed in our public education system, even though there is much more to be done.

There are about 20 000 Italians who live in Albania. Last night, before the match, I met an old lady. Her husband used to be an important entrepreneur in Vlora, but unfortunately, he had passed away two years ago, meanwhile she decided to continue to live in Albania after the death of her husband, to develop further ahead the activity of the company, because as she accepted, she feels at home here.

As I said it, there are 20000 Italians, they are not a few, they are a lot, but they might be even more, because there is a lot of space to advance, to grow this country together and to create the opportunity for more Italian companies. If we make a balance between the cordiality, love intensity between Albania and Italy, so between Albanians and Italians, and the intensity of money that accesses here, a comparison cannot be made yet.

I will always be happy to see that the first part (the friendship) will be progressively bigger than the one of money, but even the money will not spoil this friendship between us, but will make it even more powerful and sustainable over the time.

I would like to thank the ones who told me that the most important person is in this room, Mr. Edoardo Garrone. We are lucky to have you here and it is a privilege for us to be here and to have even the ambassador. I have been lucky that I have had the chance to work with an ambassador such as Alberto Cutillo. Earlier there was the ambassador Massimo Gaiani and then the ambassador we have now; both of them very interested in that joint attempt to expand more and more the cooperation area in the economic field.

Today, we are not talking about the field of security, but in the economic filed this is very important. I continue to believe that Albania has something lots of Italian entrepreneurs dream of.

We are fighting every day. The minister launched recently another packet of measures to advance the reform that we can reduce the bureaucracy between the state and the entrepreneurships. However, I think that the Italian entrepreneurs who are present here and have gone through the first difficult period in Albania might witness that there is much less bureaucracy and much more facility.

Konfindustria of Albania for us will be a partner of the first level, a very important partner in this road which is becoming more and more common between us, because it is not just Albania which needs Italy, but even Italy needs Albania and we have lots of common things

We are almost similar and I think that the future will be a beautiful future for all the ones who will continue to invest in Albania, or for the ones who will come to invest in Albania. And perhaps, the first purpose of Konfindustria is to take aside the Italian banker Silvio Pedrazzi and to tell him to open the pockets more and to provide more money at the disposal of the companies, because they have lots of money in Albania, but they do not spend as we do. We would like them to do it and I am sure that the Albanian entrepreneurs have to learn about this, regarding the way to approach the banks, but even to create a general team as the one between the Italian and Albanian entrepreneurs, in order for them to make a pressure on the banks.

They were the France of yesterday, we are the Albania of the future.

I am certain about what I am saying.