Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Rama at the 9th edition of the “Future Investment Initiative” Forum

Prime Minister Rama took part today in the proceedings of the 9th edition of the “Future Investment Initiative” Forum one of the world’s most important platforms for innovation, technology, and sustainable investments, held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. On this occasion, he also held several meetings with the Forum’s leadership, heads of international organizations, and executives of prestigious companies with significant investment potential in areas of mutual interest for the two countries.

The Prime Minister was invited to the discussion panel “Is Humanity Heading in the Right Direction?”, a conversation on the challenges facing humanity and their impact on future generations. Other participants included the President of the Republic of Rwanda, Paul Kagame; the President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, Mohamed Irfaan Ali; the Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif; the Founder, CIO Mentor, and Board Member of Bridgewater Associates and Founder of the Dalio Family Office, Ray Dalio; as well as the President of FIFA, Gianni Infantino.

The panel was moderated by Richard Attias, Chairman of the Executive Committee and CEO of the FII Institute.

 

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Richard Attias: His Excellency Edi Rama, Prime Minister of the Republic of Albania, will also be joining us. In fact, it is impossible not to notice because he is the tallest leader in Europe, perhaps even in the world. We have a very important topic to discuss. We began this conversation earlier this morning, namely in what direction humanity is heading. This will affect us all, it already affects our children, and it will shape the generations to come.

Prime Minister Rama,  you’re not just a political leader, I think you almost became, by coincidence, a political leader, but you are a great artist.

And your creations are amazing, and I was so privileged to visit your office a few months ago in Tirana, and it’s almost a museum.

So, what do you think the role of culture, the role of creativity, art, imagination, technology can play to bring nations again in the right direction and to inspire the people today?

Because I think people need to be inspired.

Prime Minister Edi Rama: Thank you very much, and let me share with you first impression of this table. I’m not used to see Gianni like that. I’m used to see him in the White House bringing cups of the world, of the clubs, and here he comes with a bowl.

So, bowls for us, cups for the White House. You know, the emperor of the football is here and is one of the very significant signs, I guess, what’s going on in this country. Who would have imagined to have in this country, only ten years ago, this amazing gathering and Gianni Infantino himself being here, not just as a tourist, but as someone who is representing the largest human movement, and advocating for 2034, the World Cup.

Now, going back to your question, I have to share with you my firm belief that there are beautiful places that may be poor, but there is no ugly place that is prosperous and rich. So, there is a direct connection between beauty and prosperity, and there is a direct connection between people and the space they live in. And I believe that if today the Saudi Kingdom is a role model, this is also very much connected with a vision, part of which is beauty, is transformation that is physical, that is tangible, that shows you that everything is possible.

Aiming to transform this desert in Florence 2.0, and I mean Florence of the Medici’s, is exactly vision. And what we are experiencing nowadays in our part of the world, namely West, is inertia and not imagination.

While what we face in the Gulf and in many other parts of the world is imagination instead of inertia, and of course imagination is fueled by innovation, of course imagination is fueled by the need to climb and to make big jumps, but also imagination is related in one way or the other to beauty.

Coming from the airport here yesterday, after six or seven years, I could see and you could feel immediately that there is a different energy in this country, there is a different understanding of the space and of the living together, just by looking at the beautiful green sculptures I would say on both sides of the street.

It’s not how people sometimes, because sometimes people used to accuse me when I was a mayor and I started to paint the city, that this is a facade, this is superficial And I said okay, just imagine if one morning everyone would get out from the house in the city without taking care of how he looks or how she looks. Imagine what the nightmare would be if nobody would take care of how she looks or how he looks, because it’s a totally different thing.

So, I am a firm believer in that and I think that we have taken for a long time what we had for granted in our part of the world and we have consumed all that we inherited from them who thought about beauty and now we are in the boredom of inertia. And that’s why, one of the reasons that in your survey there is this sense that my life is going well but our country is not going well. And mostly in the countries that have been foreseen for a long time as the place where things go well has to do exactly with this boredom of inertia and with this frustration that nothing changes while then things that change, change for the worse. While in this part of the world is a totally different story.

Everything changes and it changes for good. So I believe that it’s time for us to become much more humble and to learn from Gianni.

He is European, he is surrounded by the old and traditional forces but he is all the time with the emerging ones and he is showing that what can happen in Europe can happen in Qatar, can happen in Saudi, can happen in Morocco and can happen even in the most ignorant country about football which is United States of America.

Richard Attis: Edi, what Europe should do, practically, to go back to the right direction? Give me three. If you are the emperor of Europe, to quote what you say about Gianni, what will be the first three decisions you will make to bring Europe back?

 Prime Minister Edi Rama: This is where one has to envy Gianni, because he has not to think and answer these questions. But frankly, I believe that something is fundamentally wrong in the fact that there is a hurry, in daily basis, to rearm, to think and to speak and to work more and more about more weapons, while there is no peace plan that is possible to look and read and think about.

So a Europe that has not its own peace plan, a Europe that has put itself for some years in the autopilot of the United States, and then, when things there changed dramatically, I would say, started to waver the notion of the ceasefire, rediscovered the word ceasefire, which was taken off every vocabulary, and still is stuck in a position that is just about weaponry, and not also about diplomacy, is preoccupying.

Now, I know for a fact that I’m the tallest leader among all the European leaders but I also have always in mind that I represent a very small country so it’s not up to me to lecture anyone or to say what the others should do but as a convinced European I feel very preoccupied and very disturbed by the fact that the word nuclear has become a normality in the vocabulary while just the word until some years ago was not used by anyone.

The threat implicit or explicit through social media of big forces repeated with the nukes on the back is crazy.

It’s crazy and when you see all that then you realize that there is a word the Italians have, a shower of humbleness.

So Europe and the West in general needs to have a shower of humbleness and to try and reflect more about what’s going on in the other parts of the world and try to learn and restart by not taking its moral legitimacy for granted and for something that gives it all the reasons to keep going in a direction that for sure is not right.

So this is what I can say about Europe. Now what Europe should do or not do it cannot be related to me and Albania and this is also good because when they mess up then it’s them. When there is success then we can claim that we are part of the success.