The Prime Minister Edi Rama attended a meeting with local girls and women in the town of Bulqize on Friday as part of his tour to the north-eastern municipality, where the women’s role and contribution to their families has become increasingly significant. Earlier this year, the government decided to double the existing economic assistance benefit for households of female family heads with three or more children under the age of 18 as part of its relief packages designed to help citizens to cope with the rising prices and the effects of the global energy crisis. As of October 1, the government decided to double the economic assistance payment for the female family heads with two children too. As many as 6757 female family heads benefit under this scheme.

 

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Hello everyone and thank you very much for attending and for this large presence here! I do really appreciate it and I hope you won’t regret coming and this conversation is worth it.

I don’t think I would say something new as you watch me frequently showing up on the TV screen and of course things can be repeated. I believe it is worth however highlighting a few important aspects, taking notice of the fact that this area, the whole territory of the municipality of Bulqize, unlike what some think, although having no idea where Bulqize is situated and the only thing linking them with the word Bulqizë are the old horrible images of children over the chrome stockpiles. It is worth underlining the fact that this is an area of really hard-working residents. The rate of land use and cultivation of the fertile land in the area is really significantly high and the area is renowned for diverse locally-grown produce. Local residents here earn their living through hard work, by cultivating their land, beekeeping, livestock and the area has significant potential for development.

Prior to this meeting, we visited a newly-built medicinal plants collection centre.

This area is abundantly rich in medicinal plants and herbs, but I would actually like to tell you here is the fact that the young man, the owner of that medicinal plants collection centre, and his family have built that facility through the government assistance, in a bid to tap this whole huge potential for export. He had already stored an initial quantity of the medicinal plants he had collected from a local family in a single day and the value of that quantity was about 35,000 lek a day. Harvesting medicinal plants is definitely a very difficult job as these families have to collect them in rough mountainous terrain. However, earning 35,000 lek a day is really great. It is a sort of work one cannot probably do every day, yet it is a new economy we plan to promote and provide maximum support. Building collection and packaging centres we will be able to develop a chain economy. This region is rich in medicinal plants, while the capacity to harvest them is insufficient and as such these plants are an inexhaustible source.

The second issue I would like to reiterate as you have actually heard it often is the absolute necessity to protect you and every other family all over the country from the effects of the rising electricity prices. You certainly know quite well that if a higher electricity bill is imposed, life becomes difficult and it actually becomes even unbearable and impossible if the electricity bill would contain the real price of electricity today. If paying 9.5 lek per kWh is difficult, just imagine what would have been for everyone to pay 44 lek for each kWh. It would be impossible for everyone. It is for this reason that we have placed a financial shield and the state pays the entire price difference. And the electricity price is not falling. On the contrary, it keeps increasing in the international markets. I noticed earlier today that the Energy Regulator had determined a new higher electricity price of 44 lek from 42 lek previously. So the price has increased again. However, we will continue to keep the electricity price for the families and small businesses unchanged, being fully confident this is the right thing for us to do and by doing so we also succeed in maintaining the inflation at a lower rate than in other countries in the region. And we can’t stop inflation from rising, because no country can, but we can mitigate it. Increased electricity price is the main reason why the commodity prices in other countries in the region are almost twice as high as in Albania. If we were to increase the electricity rate for the small businesses and shops they would normally transfer the entire burden to the consumers that buy food and other basic items. And on the other hand, we also have had a discussion, since those bombarding you and all Albanian citizens with all types of poison, fabrications, slanders and contortion of half truths and big lies have recently raised the outcry over the alleged increased fines we plan to impose on businesses. It is true. We will increase fines significantly, but not on the small business. We protect small businesses by keeping the electricity price unchanged and exempting them from having to pay taxes. All we ask small businesses to employ people and pay the social insurance contributions for their employees. We don’t collect taxes and VAT from the small businesses and no fines will be imposed on small businesses. However, quite the contrary will be the case with big business. Fines are not taxes, but penalties imposed on anyone for illicit actions. One should not commit illicit actions and avoid facing penalties. But when fines are imposed they are such that you and everyone else know what they could be up to. This is what we have been told by the majority of the public via the National Consultation process with respondents agreeing on higher fines and penalties on larger businesses, so that they refrain from avoiding taxes.

In the meantime, you heard from the European Commission President a day ago, and you certainly have learned about our plans to impose the so-called extraordinary tax on the big electricity producers. I reiterate, the tax will be imposed on big producers and not on the small ones! The extraordinary tax will be levelled on the power exporters that sell electricity at much higher rates than the pre-crisis prices. Why? Because they took advantage of the crisis that unfortunately affects many others. The electricity price skyrocketed, but they have done nothing to deserve this good luck. On the other hand, you and others like you feel the effects of this crisis on their back and you certainly don’t deserve this. That’s why we will impose a high tax and we will take a good part of their earnings they have gained without making any investment at all, but they just took advantage of the situation. We will distribute this tax revenue to the people most in need and the women with two, three or more children that will now receive double economic assistance. And we will approve more support packages for female family heads in particular.

Just like we did with the most recent measure to support and pay the social insurance contribution for the employed women with three or more children and this is a measure that provides relief and guarantees their pension payment once they reach the retirement age. Another measure we are currently discussing and will hopefully be included in the next relief package, namely reimbursement of the education cost for their children. Again, this measure is designed to help women with three or more children and we hopefully include women with two children in this support scheme too.

Belinda mentioned the investment plan designed to build a food industry here. I would provide another example and the Mayor is ready to work on that. At a meeting with local women in Diber, Peshkopi, we discussed ways to develop their household economy. Many of them used to work at home, cooking pie and other traditional delicacies. In order for them to work and earn more, I urged them to come together and forward a project that we will definitely support. The outcome of that conversation is now tangible in Peshkopi and what I would suggest, with the municipality help, is that the single mothers, who should raise orphans and want to earn more money and work more, can join forces and launch an agritourism activity here. There is no reason to be surprised, because there is no need for you to invest money, but the municipality and the central government can provide for you instead and provide assistance so that you can launch a profitable agritourism business. It doesn’t take huge investment for that and such an activity would create jobs for you, would generate income for everyone by doing the chores in a guesthouse that would be the house of everyone involved in it. There are many old dilapidated buildings that can be rehabilitated and transformed into guesthouses and hotels and attract many visitors and nature lovers, adventure tourism enthusiasts who love mountain climbing and enjoy this amazing landscape. Hupi guesthouse in Fushe-Bulqize village is attracting a growing number of visitors and that area is definitely part of this stunning nature and landscape. Belinda and the Mayor would commit in person to press ahead and deliver on such a project that would bring together many women.

 

In Elbasan, I have met women like you, involved in olive growing and harvesting. They had joined forces together with a group of men too, forming a large federation of a total of 130 individuals and as such they have benefited from important financial assistance and they have built their own olive collection and storage centre and therefore none of them has to think about where to send their production. They have also built an olive oil extraction and production line and they now produce their own olive oil and none of them has to think about where to transport and sell it. We can create precisely this here and you would see for yourselves that it would work. It would definitely work also through the support from the municipality and a management training course in terms of administrative and management aspects of the agritourism business that would work as a cooperative or a federation or an association. You name it, because the word cooperative scares everyone, although cooperatives are an operational reality in the EU member states and throughout the world. Such organizations operate in medical plants collection, agritourism businesses and small hotels that allow young people and other visitors who wish to explore nature, climb the rough terrain and taste local delicacies. This way you would be able to generate economy and earnings and these are projects that we will deliver on for sure. We will deliver and you will soon see for yourselves that they will become new realities and will definitely attract more women and more families to launch other similar agritourism activities in the future.

Thank you!