Minister of Economy, Culture and Innovation Blendi Gonxhja shared in the social media moments from the signing of the agreement while he positively assessed the agreement as an important cooperation in support of SMEs, agricultural enterprises.

“This cooperation aims to support small and medium-sized enterprises, agricultural businesses, family farms, through: Empowerment of digital and innovative instruments;

Provision of non-financial services (financial education); Promotion of Albanian products; Branding, certification and standardization of products according to European standards”, wrote Gonxhja.

Gonxhja emphasized that through this support, we aim to encourage the development of exports to foreign markets.

According to him, another important step is the creation of a cluster for agro-tourism, promoting the rural economy, attracting tourists and generating jobs.

“This agreement will be implemented through the cooperation of the ministry, FED Invest and JICA”, said Gonxhja. /p.s./

The organizers explained that all Project activities have been implemented based on the principles of customer centricity, by placing the small farmers at the centre.  Through cooperation among the Albanian and the Japanese implementation team, the Project has successfully contributed to improvement of financial inclusion of rural smallholder families in Albania. The Project achieved this by developing new financial products and non‐financial services that flexibly respond to the needs of farmers.  This has been enabled by strengthening the capacity of the Savings and Credit Association, FED invest, to provide financial services in rural areas of the country.  Capacity development focus of the Project encompassed a wide-range of activities, from upgrading of the IT capacity of FED invest to staff training based on customer centric principles as well as delivery of financial and digital education for the farmers. The Project has been instrumental in developing ABA Centre and its digital platform ABA online, which is dedicated to meeting non-financial information and service needs of small farmers. The Project also extended support for purchasing agricultural inputs by small farmers during the period of COVID 19 pandemic in order to encourage their continued investment in agriculture.

Background of the FiAS (Financial Inclusion of Albanian Smallholders) Project

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has been supporting the enhancement of Financial Inclusion in Albania, through the implementation of the Technical Cooperation Project, “Smallholder Families’ Financial Inclusion Project in Albania”. The Project is implemented in cooperation with Ministry of Finance and Economy of Albania, and SCA FED invest.

The primary objective of the Project is to improve financial inclusion of rural smallholder families in Albania, by developing new financial and non-financial services and services that flexibly respond to the needs of farmers. ABA online is the ‘non-financial services’ developed with the support of the Project.

FED invest is the first pioneering microfinance institution established in Albania in 1992.  FED invest members include farmers, small-entrepreneurs, rural &peri-urban families excluded from financial services. FED invest is covering the whole territory of Albania, with 62 branches across the country, a strong rural presence in more than 2500 villages, now complemented with digital channels and digital services. As leader in providing affordable financial solutions to rural population, FED invest has a direct impact on the socio-economic development of Albania, with over 200 thousand loans and half a billion euros injected in the economy throughout its 30 years of existence.

Albanian economy is based on a large segment of farming and family-owned businesses and 45% of the population reside in rural areas. The rate of financial inclusion in Albania is low. Only 38% of people over fifteen years old own bank accounts at formal financial institutions, leaving many households without account at formal financial institution.

Given the above background and importance of the issue, the Government of Albania, through the Ministry of Finance & Economy, requested the Government of Japan to support a technical cooperation project addressing financial inclusion of rural smallholder in Albania by JICA, with a focus on development of FED invest’ s financial products and non-financial services. The Project has been working towards improving the livelihoods of 75 thousand small scale farmers through enhancing the capacity of FED invest and improving the services provided to them.

JICA is an Agency of the Government of Japan, responsible for implementing bilateral aid through Technical Cooperation, ODA (soft) Loans and Grant Aid. So far in the Republic of Albania, JICA has extended various projects in the fields of environment, private sector development, and health and tourism promotion.

**JICA Balkan Office covers 6 countries in the Balkans, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia.

*FED invest is a leading financial institution with social mission to provide services to rural and peri-urban population in Albania.

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The 1: 2000 scale topographic maps covering 300 km2 were created by a successful cooperation between the State Geospatial Information Authority (ASIG) and the JICA Project Team involving local companies. The maps are in accordance with the EU INSPIRE directive and have high resolution and accuracy.

The Closing Conference of the Project as well as the Balkan Regional Conference were held on November 4 and 5, to share the results achieved with stakeholders, government agencies, municipalities, embassies of Japan in the Balkan region, local companies, etc. who are potential users of the created digital topographic maps.

The ceremony took place at the ASIG headquarters in Tirana. Attending the event was Ambassador of Japan to Albania Takada Mitsuyuki, the Chief Representative of the Balkan Office of JICA Takeichi Jiro, the General Director of ASIG Lorenc Çala and other interested actors.

On his part, Director Çala said that, “About 80% of the decision-making of Central and Local Government directly affects the territory and the existence of digital topographic maps already helps tremendously in the planning, development and monitoring activities of many institutions in Albania” ./ a.a /p.s./

The grant agreement was signed by the Director General of the Public Health Institute Albana Fico and the Chief Representative of Chief Representative of JICA Balkan Office Takeichi Jiro, in the presence of the Japanese Ambassador to Albania Takada Mitsuyuki.

The project’s goal will strengthen the Public Health Institute’s capacities to fight infectious diseases, including the COVID-19 infection.

The Head of the Public Health Institute Albana Fico said that the project will help Albania secure a considerable number of coronavirus vaccine doses, provide for the medical personnel training, an effective and safe vaccination system against COVID-19 through a cold chain and medical equipment.

“This assistance is provided thanks to the generous aid provided by the Japanese people and the Japanese government,” Fico said.

Japanese Ambassador to Albania Takada Mitsuyuki said that Japan’s assistance to help efforts in fighting COVID-19 pandemic focuses on strengthening health care delivery capacities, including screening, diagnosing and treatment of diseases.

The Chief Representative of JICA Balkan Office Takeichi Jiro underlined that the new JICA’s Technical Cooperation Project will contribute to a timely response to epidemiological surveillance, as well as maintaining a cold chain of vaccines for storage and their distribution.

“This assistance, valued at around 700,000 Euros, will contribute to the improvement of the vehicle fleet of the Institute of Public Health with fast vehicles, refrigerated vans and will increase the storage capacity of vaccines with ultra low temperature freezers that can store vaccines at temperatures down to -85 degrees Celsius. The project will last until March 2022,” he said.

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