ALB
ENG
“We will have a difficult economic year”
Interviewed for Albanian Free Press by Eglantina Nasi
Mr. Buxhuku, how do you predict the country’s economic performance for 2018?
I would say that we are expecting to have a difficult economic year. I am convinced that the Albanian economy has entered a path of crucial changes. I don’t predict any important government policies drafted in 2017 or before, to prevent that effects of the strong changes in the economic system. Here, we can also add last year’s energy crisis which has a cost of hundreds of millions of euros to understand the pessimism that will accompany 2018. However, we need to understand that it’s not the government that should be blamed on everything. The 27 year old problems caused by the bad management of the Albanian economic system are now surfacing. The global crisis has accelerated the emergence of the problems. The consequences affect the wellbeing of the citizens.
Now that TAP pipeline or the Hydro Power Plant of Devoll have been completed, do you think that there will be a positive growth of foreign direct investments this year?
The World Bank is predicting a 25% decline in direct foreign investments in 2018. This doesn’t need any further comments. Konfindustra has long raised the concern that among others, Albania lacks the ability to be competitive in the region in order to attract foreign investments. There are no economic policies which create new markets and open today’s monopolistic markets. In many areas, tax is 25% or 30% higher than in the region. Not to mention strategic markets that have been closed, high prices of energy, fuels, problematic economic policies, etc.
Now we’re expecting to see the implementation of the 2018 budget. Do you think that it will manage to deliver the government’s objectives? Or will it be reviewed during the year, as it has happened in the past?
I hope that the budget will be realized. Above all, I hope that the economic growth is tangible, although based on the reasons explained above, it is not an easy task.
As far as European integration is concerned, do you think the country’s economy is helping this process to accelerate? What about the opening of the regional market, do you think that Albania will benefit or lose from it?
Albania needs to be a real part of the regional and European markets. Competition is in fact the essence of the strength of the free market and a source of wellbeing for the citizens. The opening of new markets implies a race where one could either win or lose. The race must be fair. In this point, our government must understand that signing deals is not enough to look like a European, modern and globalist in front of EU leaders. One should have made a calculation beforehand of the costs and the measures that need to be taken in order for the signature that appears on the agreement to lead to benefits and not losses for the national economy and the wellbeing of the citizens. Otherwise, the only way out for Albanian people is leaving the country.
