Hello!

Some important aspects that I believe are worth an emphasis at the moment, which I think has a special significance for further progress in the last four months of this year.

First, allow me to spend a few words on the Berlin Process and on the assessment of the stop in Vienna where, I believe, we succeeded in taking forward a process from which Albania and the region will have a direct benefit, not only from a political but also from an economic standpoint. The political progress was reviewed and, without the slightest doubt, an extraordinary political progress has been marked in the region from the Berlin Conference to the Vienna Conference. It is actually incomparable to what has been marked over many years taken together prior to this initiative undertaken by Chancellor Merkel.

It is worth noting that we are already at a stage where this political progress acknowledged by everyone has served to increase the attention and the interest to further promote economic and financial support for the region in terms of regional economic cooperation.

It is a firm belief that although each country has its own inalienable homework in relation to the integration process and the progress to be provided in every sector, none of the countries can finance regional cooperation in terms of infrastructure, in terms of power increase and energy independence of the region, and in terms of strengthening the network of vocational education. We have strongly insisted for the latter, and have opened a chapter which this year, in between the Conferences of Vienna and Paris, will undoubtedly have new developments.

It has been our conviction, and I am pleased to say that it has received adequate support, that some of the most important aspects to enhance the attractive force of perspective and the driving force of hope for young women and men in the region is strengthening further the network of vocational education. Meanwhile, Albania has already made a transformative reform of vocational education by adopting the German dual system.

We already have the first encouraging signs in the implementation of this reform, but today, even for the well-known conditions in which we are in relation to youth unemployment and the attractive power of Germany, in the first place, but also of European Union countries, for young people who naturally do not have and cannot have the patience to see the results of reforms over the years, it is imperative to have a special support, both form a know-how and a financial standpoint, in order to strengthen this network by aiming at two things:

First, at increasing the number of young people who may seek employment and can be employed legally in Germany or elsewhere, where the need for professions, which today are no longer attractive to young people of those countries, is growing;

On the other hand, obviously to capitalize on this process also a faster growth of skilled labor force for the development of our real economy.

Meanwhile, after an intensive work carried out throughout the year to determine the interconnection map through joint projects in infrastructure, we are very encouraged by the fact that our first priority, the Blue Corridor, or the Adriatic-Ionian highway, has been set as a priority project whose feasibility study and project design are about to start, followed by its financing. This highway will eventually connect Albania with the Mediterranean Ring thus enabling a transition of European standards from the south of Croatia, where practically the coast highway is intersected, through Montenegro, Albania and then Greece.

Likewise, we have supported another project that Serbia has named the “Road of Peace”, and which will fix the road connecting Serbia, Kosovo and Albania through the route Nis-Pristina-Durres which will also be of European standards.

Both of these projects will have a priority in the context of road infrastructure projects.

Meanwhile, funding has been approved for five major projects in the field of energy interconnection. The funding for interconnection with Macedonia has been another great encouragement for us because, along with the interconnection with Kosovo, it will strengthen significantly the capacity of Albania to have an important role in the common energy market.

On the other hand, countries in the region have signed the project of the joint Albanian-Serb initiative for youth cooperation, based on the youth cooperation model launched after World War II as one of the mechanisms for the consolidation of the common path to peace and cooperation between France and Germany. It was agreed that the first act for the launch of this cooperation will be done after our proposal, on the eve of the match between Albania and Serbia in Elbasan.

Both our ideas have been met with special interest and have been strongly supported.

First, the Economic Union among the countries in the region, which means the unification of procedures in order to have e freer movement not only of people but also of goods throughout our region. Thanks to this process, we will have a regional market which operates under the same laws of the European market. In addition, we will prepare the region in this regard, according to all European standards and norms of the movement of products, and we will be fully prepared to integrate into the European Union as such.

We have strongly sought and obtained support for the idea to start work, together with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, for the launch of a regional bank for construction and development which will give countries in the region the opportunity to have another instrument for funding development projects.

In addition, I want to inform you that our partners have shown a special interest in the Law Reform. We have been praised for the current process of the reform as a deep, serious and comprehensive process in terms of the required international expertise, but have also been given a strong push to finalize this process within this autumn, and this is also our common objective.

In concluding this point, besides being ready to answer any questions that may relate to it, I want to emphasize that, as we have announced, the most important operation of this mandate starts tomorrow. It is an open warfare against informality. It does not start from zero, but goes through a crucial second stage to reduce informality in the acceptable level of a normal European country. It will be a frontal war, not against business, but in alliance with businesses that implement the laws, respect the rules and pay taxes, with an intent to protect consumers deceived and robbed on a daily basis when they purchase goods or services, and are not issued the respective receipt.

It is an effort through which we aim not only to establish justice and equality before the law and in relation to obligations, so that everyone will contribute according to what is due, as we did with energy which is an ongoing effort, but on the other hand it is an attempt to make a mandatory epochal leap in relation to our being citizens of Europe.

In parallel, we will start the water reform previously announced, in order to challenge a very serious legacy of all these years of transition, where practically we have damaged ourselves as no other country has ever done, because although we are very rich in water resources, we have so many problems with drinking water supply, irrigation and power supply, which we have already included in the appropriate framework.

Reform of the drinking water system will be a deep reform, primarily a structural one, and will be based very strongly on the great advantage created by the administrative and territorial reform which led to the creation of only 61 new local units. The first phase of this reform will be exactly what we need to do in order to put in a completely new legal and functional basis the entire system of water supply in the Republic of Albania.

In parallel with this, we will start in close cooperation with the new local governments a process of consumer awareness on the fact that water and energy are commodities and they must be paid for like any other commodity. An important aspect is the opening of a completely new chapter for the funding of agriculture development. The Albanian government will launch in the coming weeks a process of intensive communication with all entrepreneurs in agriculture, or those who live by the land and agricultural production, in order to submit a major funding package for entrepreneurship and agricultural production that farmers have ever had available. This package is being finalized in cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the second level banks in the country, in order to open a completely innovative and new line of agriculture lending, by giving the Albanian state an entirely new role as a guarantor of loans obtained by entrepreneurs and farmers.

Finally, in these months we will implement a substantial package of decentralization, in order to give new responsibilities to new municipalities, and at the same time enable them to exercise properly the task received.

This is the picture of the priority items on the agenda of the four months ahead until the end of the year, and I am looking forward to hearing your questions on these items.

(…to be continued)