Appreciating this forum as a platform for dialogue between actors and factors of economic development, Veliaj added that thanks to investments in the capital, digital technology is gaining more and more significance, which is dictating not only the challenges of the future, but also a revolution aimed at separating the service age from the digital industry.

“In the 2000s, we made a transition from what is called the façon industry, to that of services, mainly call-centers. While today, this is high time to make another leap, from call-center to data-center and to the digital industry. In Tirana today, there are about 4600 thousand coders. But, my ambition as mayor is to have 10 thousand coders at the end of this mandate. That is why we have liberalized the software engineering schools, encouraging coming to Tirana “Hoxton Academy”, “Holberton School”, “Micro Folie”, “TUMO Center”, “Ecole 42” and “Factory Berlin”. The ambition is for 1% of our population to be professional coders because this is the job of the future, which you can also do at home, which does not require you to leave the country, but these are also the best paid jobs.” said Veliaj.

Given the fact that in Tirana this whole week is full of activities in context of the Europe Week, Veliaj brought to attention that the capital really aspires to EU membership, but first, it is important to create Europe here.

Veliaj also spoke about the significance of regional cooperation in the spirit of the Open Balkan Initiative and good neighborliness.

Tirana Economic Forum is a high-level meeting of political, corporate and intellectual leaders with local and international influence, to address the urgent challenges currently facing Albania and the world. /k.s/a.a/r.e/p.s./