Albania is hosting the regional conference “Shaping the Future of GovTech,” aimed at fostering discussions on the future challenges and the integration of technology and governance in service of citizens. The conference focuses on finding innovative and simple solutions to improve the relationship between citizens and government services.

Following opening remarks from representatives of the Western Balkan governments, the conference continued with a series of panels centered on technology, innovation, and the integration of artificial intelligence into state systems.

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Welcome to everyone.

I am also very pleased that the Albanian language almost covers the entire digital revolution front in our region. Considering that the head of AKSHI from Kosovo is here, but was not on the panel due to the level of political representation; it becomes very clear that the Albanian language will have a dominant role in the future digital landscape of the region. I hope that this will not become a reason to spark a regional debate or provoke tensions.

Whenever the topic of discussion revolves around this matter, I believe it is appropriate to share with you that I immediately think of the pandemic period. Reflecting on that time, I try to imagine what Albania could have done if we had not reached the level of digital advancement we had when the global crisis hit.  Albania at that time was a country where digital governance had not yet even begun to take its first steps. What is today the major gateway for Albanians to access and navigate public administration, through computers or phones, ‘e-Albania’ was, at that time, an almost insignificant entity compared to the vast needs of the administration and the citizens to interact with each other, with an insignificant number of services and even fewer users.

The pandemic moment led to a complete embrace of the entire Albanian community interacting with the Albanian state both inside and outside the country, with technology and with the government in terms of service governance through “e-Albania.”  Now we have 3.2 million users who systematically interact with e-Albania and even an exceptional number for much more developed countries. This is a blessing for us, the blessing of developing countries, such as those in our region.

Today, we are in a different phase, and we are actually discussing entirely different matters. We would be in a completely different situation today if, when we were cyberattacked by one of the largest powers in this field, and by one of the most malicious forces in today’s world, Iran, we had not been able to resist. But we resisted. And because we laid such a foundation, we are now in a position to take the first steps of a new phase of the technological revolution. And precisely because in many aspects, the traditional path would have been much more difficult and much longer to achieve the objectives we now face with our great dream of European Union membership, this path gives us much more optimism and much more objective reasons to believe that membership will happen very soon. This is because we will be ready. And today, as the Director of AKSHI, who is also leading the daily life of this process, mentioned, we are currently carrying out the integration process in the EU during the negotiation phase for membership, thanks to a completely new instrument never used by any other country before, and to our knowledge, not even by countries negotiating for membership, which is a model we have built ourselves, specifically for AI.

This model gives us the opportunity to complete the entire process of transferring the entire EU legislative body much faster than other countries have done before. We can achieve the translation in record time, but not only the translation—we can also analyze the texts for the aspects that concern us regarding the impact of these new laws that need to be transferred into the legislative body of Albania. And we are not talking about a few hundred, but thousands. If we consider that until recently, the pace of our legislative work and our legislative capacities regarding this kind of legislation was around 60 pieces per year, and if we take into account that here we are talking about over 4,000 pieces, imagine how much longer the process would have been and how much of an army of translators, drafters, and proofreaders would have been required, as other countries have done.

Another step we are taking, which is linked to a new phase in the fight against corruption and efforts to increase transparency, is an innovative model using artificial intelligence to carry out public procurement. We are now in a completely different phase when it comes to public procurement, as clearly shown by the European Union’s progress report and our negotiations table for membership. According to the SIGMA report, we are not only in the first place in the region—whenever we, the Balkans, gather, there is always a big effort to determine who is the oldest and who is the first. So, it is impossible for me to avoid this: we know we are the oldest, no need to mention that, but at the same time, being the oldest gives us much greater capacity compared to the younger ones, and this is why we sometimes clash with one another instead of addressing the issues that need to be addressed.

With the artificial intelligence model we are building, I believe that by the middle of our fourth mandate, we will be the first country to carry out public procurement with 90% of the process automated, without human intervention, achieving a level of objectivity and transparency that is unbeatable by any procurement commission doing this work from start to finish. And of course, this will be another achievement, thanks to this blessing, this opportunity that technology provides us.

Another project we are currently working on, and all of these are products that are either already operational, like the integration and negotiation model, or are being prepared to be implemented, is the security product. This is related to road safety, which, thanks to a system already used by many developed countries with digital cameras, combined with an artificial intelligence system, will be able to monitor everything that happens on the roads of the country in real-time, even down to the basic cells of tomorrow, which are schools. Based on this, there will be a completely different relationship between citizens and the law, while the police will, at last, become invisible on the streets of the country as a result of technology.

At the same time, there will be a completely different relationship between students, teachers, parents, and institutions, thanks to the fact that everything will be under very, very advanced security conditions.

Additionally, the tracking of transactions, as the director mentioned, with artificial intelligence being integrated into our fiscalization system, will enable a significant escalation in the fight against informality. It will make it possible to monitor large and small companies and businesses based on risk, without them being concerned, as they have been until now, about physical inspections and numerous visits from inspectors, who, despite all the awareness, education, and training, are still far from being a welcomed presence at a business’s door.

And to conclude, with another product that will greatly ease the tracking of all goods entering the territory of the Republic of Albania, specifically excise goods, we are preparing—and I believe it will be signed in the coming weeks—an agreement with the United Arab Emirates to completely transform the printing of securities. Our ambition is that, in the near future, we will not only produce money domestically but also produce all types of securities, including everything related to digital identification through phones, rather than through an identity card in people’s pockets. With this system, alongside the components I’ve outlined to you, we aim to have governance by 2030 that meets much higher standards in terms of respect for the law, respect for citizens, and, on the other hand, respect for our country on the international stage.

Having said all this, I want to point out one thing: where we are not in the lead, but rather behind others in the region, is in the sector related to the private digital technology sector. This is an area where we have a lot to learn and to do in order to become leaders. However, important milestones have been set, starting with the program to equip all schools with “Smart” laboratories for both primary and secondary schools. This project is being implemented in collaboration with the World Bank and is already underway.

Furthermore, we have established legislation that is better than that of all the other Albanians here, when it comes to technology parks, and we expect, thanks to this legislation, a significant influx of interest to focus on our country. There are a series of other measures as well, because what, as Linda, the director of AKSHI, said—and I quote her for the third time—is very important. All of these instruments should not remain within the state’s purview but should involve the entire digital activity of society, with entrepreneurship playing a special role. And even there, compared to countries in the region, in terms of investment levels and knowledge in digitalization, we are still far from first place, to put it mildly.

We are very aware of the progress we have made, and we are certainly pleased to see Albania ranked in places that were unimaginable just a few years ago in terms of digital governance advancement. However, we are also very aware of the progress we still need to make, particularly in the area of entrepreneurship and in the broader context of digital education for the society.

Thank you!!