TIRANA, April 24 /ATA/ Prime Minister Edi Rama attended today the Business Climate Forum convened at the Palace of Congresses in Tirana.
During his speech at this forum, Rama said that our economy has already entered a very important turning point.
“I want to start with the aspect of salaries. This is a critical moment for Europe and for our country, which is not an exception to the rest of Europe. There is a struggle underway for the labor force. And we must survive”, said Rama.
Rama said that, “The reason why we significantly increased salaries in the public sector is related to what I said, but also to the fact that there were created the opportunities to increase these salaries in this sector which did not exist before. We very much hope that it will also give the positive effect of further salary increases in the private sector”.
He added that, “Today, the business feels the lack of sufficient human capital.”
Rama said that, “30 years ago when the foundations of the first façon factories began to be laid, there was a whole generation of young women who entered these factories. Today, these women are on their way to retirement year after year after working 20 or 30 years in a pretty tough, low-paid job, enabling entrepreneurs to tell buyers of the materials they process that here you can produce for big firms at a cost you won’t find anywhere else. This was a phase of the economy emerging from communism, which was inevitable. But, today I do not believe that there is a woman who agrees to replace the retiring women and continue working with a small salary. One cannot do any more business with cheap labor force “.
“Then, we need to do what most companies are doing, moving to another level of their production, the products “Made in Albania”. The same applies to all sectors”, said Rama.
The prime minister underlined that, “This is a moment of strategic importance for the future of our country’s economy and every enterprise. At this important turning point, Albania needs to withstand this storm, which has only just begun and which will continue to grow stronger, because when Germany seeks 7 million people outside its system of fertility to make its economy resilient by 2030, imagine what a great struggle it is.”
Without question, added Rama, “We have all the possibilities to survive this storm. This is a moment when the enterprise must go one step further. There are enterprises in Albania that have very high salaries and that continue to increase salaries, but we must do more”. /gj.m/r.e/p.s./
