Meetings of Albanian governments with pompous speeches, agreements remain unmet

So say business representatives a day before holding the joint assembly of Albanian governments.

At the collection of two Albanian governments, which is the sixth in a row and which is pre-priced to be held tomorrow in Tirana, it is meant to sign 15 agreements.

Kosovo Producers Club Director Panja says that despite the White House agreement for Kosovo to be part of the minister for regional integration, Kosovo must have special relations with Albania.

The “should not be viewed in the context of relations between Kosovo and Albania. The mine is a regional project where Albania and Kosovo have pledged to be included in the mine. In view of regional integrations, relations between Kosovo and Albania should be seen as relations between the two independent countries, which have a common history, common language, shared nationality. Now the problem is that we are constantly signing new agreements, memorandums of co-operation between the two countries, but the existing ones are not being implemented, so in most cases these meetings have had a character where we had a beautiful decoration, pompous talks, but the practical aspect of facilitating businesses in between the two countries it is to wish for”, Panja says.

Panja has said that, in economic terms, Kosovo has much more difficulty penetrated Albania's market than Albania's businesses in Kosovo.

OAK Board Chairman Skender Krasniqi has said Kosovo and Albania should be more open to a more integrated Albanian market.

Kosovo needs many agreements to implement, even those signed earlier, which have not been implemented by past governments' pledges. There is a need for many agreements to implement in order for the Albanian market to integrate and have a liberalisation, because Kosovo and Albania have more liberalisation with other countries than those two countries. This is due to the non-invention of many problems which we continue to address on continents. There are no documentation... unfortunately these problems are continuing”, Krasniqi says.

Likewise, the OAK leader has said that the Republic of Kosovo has created legal barriers to labour market liberalisation with Albania, which should be resolved accordingly as soon as possible.

“Today we have addressed both prime ministers on the eve of tomorrow's meeting, where we have asked that job market liberalisation take place, because a Tirana citizen to hire in Pristina or a citizen from Kukes to be employed in Prizren is almost impossible with letters, and most are working on the black market as a result of the legal obstacles Kosovo has done in this case more than Albania<1>, he says.

Economy expert Safet Gerjaliu has said it is good to meet the two Albanian governments, however, according to him, Kosovo and Albania do not lack agreements, but their implementation and implementation.

Tomorrow's meeting in Tirana, according to Gerjaliu, is more a political spectacle than a political and economic substance.

This is happening at the time when political unity is at its most critical point. Today, the government has a maximum 60 deputies, and this whole meeting gives a much more media epithet, a political show than a political and economic substance. In this respect, I believe the most important thing is that we have responsibility for implementation and not just signature and photography... It must be understood that the bilateral partnership is of unconventional importance and that the barriers should be eliminated in this direction... In the course of many agreements that must be implemented, there must be that for liberalizing work permits, because we are two complimentary economies... Therefore, in this direction we need to be more concrete, to eliminate barriers until we keep political marketing and problems borne year-on-year”, Gerjaliu says.

As far as the liberalisation of the Kosovo-Albanian labour market is concerned, the director of the Club of Producers, Astrit Panja, has said the movement of the workforce should be a priority for both Albanian governments.

He says it is pointless that citizens of both countries wait for months for work permits.

“Capital movement and goods movement, as well as labor force movement, should be a priority for both governments, no obstacles. But not only obstacles but to look at the modalities of what relief and incentives should be given these three factors that make it easy to integrate with each other”, Panja points out.

So far, five joint meetings have been held and over 70 agreements have been signed, ranging from the economy to education.