ALB
ENG
By Plator Nesturi
In the recent days, a meeting was held in the premises of the Foreign Ministry between the most senior government representatives and ambassadors of Albania in different countries of the world. In contrast to the normal protocol, where the meetings with the ambassadors are held in the month of September and the PM unfolds the big successes or the flaws of the diplomatic corps in line with the strategies of the country, this November we had an extra meeting. Not even two months had gone by since the last meeting of Tirana and this time, the scope was to attract foreign investors to the Albanian economy.
However, such topic is not a novelty. There have been meetings of this nature before, where ambassadors were requested to focus more on foreign investments. Surprisingly, these meetings have always been held during the second term of the government in office. The last one of this kind was during Berisha’s second term in office, where the meeting presided by the then deputy Foreign Minister, Harxhi, pointed out the importance of foreign investments, mainly from foreign serious companies.
The meeting with ambassadors is held at a time when next year’s budget is being discussed and the government is very concerned about the lack of foreign investments, which could give a real boost to the economy. This reality becomes clear in the speech delivered by minister Ahmetaj during the meeting with Albanian ambassadors. The minister of Economy and Finance was sincere when he said that the country is lacking these investments. During this period, it was the investment on TAP and the hydro power plant of Kalivaç which have injected 1,2 billion euros in the economy, thus contributing for a better performance of the country’s economy. But, these investments are nearing completion and if next year, there will not be investments from other foreign companies to fill the gap that will be created by TAP and Kalivaç, then the Albanian economy will have 200 million less capital. Therefore, in this aspect, the government addresses to diplomats around the world to be more active in order to promote its economy and find new “clients” to invest in Albania.
“None of you has talked to me about making new contacts with foreign companies with the aim of investing in Albania”. This was the direct criticism coming from minister Ahmetaj, addressed to the ambassadors. This may even be considered as a direct request, if we’re not dealing with a campaign through which the government urgently needs to generate money from foreign investments, in order to inject them in the economy. But this would be the case if there was a well pondered strategy, from which results are anticipated and where diplomacy was instructed to make the country’s economic climate as much attract as possible for foreign investments. Why isn’t this the case? There hasn’t been any previous orientation or cooperation platform of cooperation between special sectors of the economy with active diplomacy.
The defects of our diplomacy, where the heads of our foreign missions are appointed either through political motives or nepotism, associated with the limited sources that they have, make this a lost battle since the very start. Our missions abroad are not able to protect Albanian businesses and our exports in other countries.
This is as true as the fact that businessmen and merchants are more interested on obtaining another citizenship because this way, they can better protect their commercial interests.
While we are unable to uphold our economic interests abroad, what chances do our diplomats have to turn into promoters of attracting foreign investments? The diplomats who have been appointed are not experts of economy or business law. The fact that they are not very active in this aspect, makes their activity rely on random meetings. An expert would not only know where to go and how to be convincing in presenting the situation in front of foreign companies who could operate in Albania, but, at the same time, he could also offer his opinion on the risk of a foreign investment in the country. Under these circumstances, November’s meeting with our ambassadors all over the world, could merely result an inefficient campaign. What we understood is just the fact that the situation with foreign investments is bad. And diplomacy is not to be blamed for this.
Note: The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Albanian Free Press’ editorial policy
