Prime Minister Edi Rama paid a two-day official visit to Luxembourg, where he attended the second edition of the EIB Group Forum 2024.
During his stay, the government head met and engaged in a conversation with members of the Albanian community in Luxembourg, compatriots who over the years are best integrated into the administration, banks, and large companies in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, to discuss their possible contribution to the priority areas of Albania’s development.
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Prime Minister Edi Rama: I would like to sincerely appreciate you for taking the trouble to come here and I don’t want to deliver a speech, because I think it would be more appropriate to engage in a conversation together. I am particularly interested in listening and learning as much as I can during such conversations, more so I cannot pretend to best know the context you live in and the problems you encounter or even your desires for the future or with the interaction with Albania. You certainly represent a top-notch part of the Albanian community abroad and, undoubtedly, considering this country’s spheres of economic activity, you are definitely an asset for this country and you are definitely asset for Albania itself.
At this meeting, I am accompanied the Ambassador, who needs no introduction, with the Deputy Minister of Finance, with the Director of the Innovation Agency, who was like one of you until recently and, after a long stay in the United States, he decided to return back to Albania and take over this newly-founded agency in a bid to provide greater impetus to innovation in our governance system. So, if you would ask me questions, you would help me to talk about things you are interested in and not talk about things that may be far from the scope of your interests.
As to the diaspora vote in the Albanian elections, this is not a matter of wish or readiness on our part, because we want Albanian diaspora to vote, but this is a matter of the database. We still lack a register of the migration. Despite several attempts, we have not succeeded because, as it is usually the case with Albanians when it comes to obtaining our passport or identity card, we want it on that day, at the moment we need it, but this database issue hinders us a lot to deliver on the migrants vote.
We have developed a complete plan on renewable energy and we are significantly investing through projects forwarded by various companies. It would definitely be of great interest for us to make available more financial instruments other than the classical ones, and the European Investment Bank, the EBRD are involved in renewable energy projects. However, in order for everything to be more concrete, we don’t mind it at all making entire list of projects available, plus a list of applications already underway and which may need some financial support, and figure then out how this could be achieved. It is actually our national goal to turn Albania into a net energy exporter by 2029 and make sure that the country no longer needs to import electricity. Based on this plan, solar power projects are already underway, whereas a number of wind power energy projects have also been submitted and we are confident to deliver on this objective.
You represent an important community here. It would be wise for us to make efforts and you can help us establish contacts with local business and investors in various areas of economy.
What we can imagine for Albania is that it becomes a country that thanks to its potential tourism, energy and innovation develops the right conditions to create quality living conditions and standards and I am confident that Albania will definitely lead the region for its economy, safety, security, quality living standards and opportunities. I am really confident about this. I would like to sincerely thank you all. It was a pleasure. Not everyone had the opportunity to take the floor, but we will be at your disposal.
Thank you very much!