World Bank "Doing Business" report
Commenting the last report of the World Bank for the business climate, in which Albania’s level had dropped, the Minister of Economy, Arben Ahmetaj, declared that the worst indicator is that of the government’s ability to respect agreements.
The proof for this, according to Ahmetaj, is the the debt that the government has accumulated towards companies that have completed work and have not been paid.
“Based on the data collected until May 2013, the Doing Business team has classifed Albania in the 90th spot, from 189 countries in total. The trend of the second mandate of the former government shows that Albania has deteriorated each year in the business facility. By not paying the contractual obligations, the previous government not only has left a 600 million USD hidden debt to the citizens, but as this report shows, they have scared away potential investors through corruptive practices and irresponsibility. Our government has taken the mandate for addressing all these problems and the critical situation caused by the former government”, Ahmetaj declared. The OSCE Ambassador to Tirana, Florian Raunig, presented at the headquarters of this organization in Vienna the annual report in which are included the recent developments of Albania. Since the beginning the report identifies the challenges that the Albanian government is facing.
“It is a positive thing the fact that the new majority has shown its strong interest to progress with the much necessary reforms, and has promised to cooperate with the opposition in this direction. We hope that the opposition will respond in a favorable way for reaching progress in the reform agenda”, the report says.
Part of this report is the European Union integration process. “Now that the European Commission has recommended the candidate status, the Albanian political class and the Albanian citizens have the opportunity to use this positive inertia for asking a transformation of their country, so that the transition chapter can end”, the document underlines.
A special part of the report is dedicated to the property problematic, saying: “There’s a lack of stable policies and this has brought legal insecurity as regards the property right, the increased number of illegal construction and the irregular development of the real estate market, with consequences in returning properties to their owners”.
The report of the OSCE ambassador expresses concern about the work of law enforcing institutions in the fight against corruption. “The new government has declared war against corruption as a main priority, and they have pressed charges against several officials. The government has promised to plan a new strateg against corruption and the respective action plan. The state institutions that take care of corruption are not yet completely protected from the political pressure, and suffer from the lack of human and financial resources”, the report underlines.
As for the OSCE, Albania is facing problems regaridng the passage from analogue to digital broadcasts. “The new government has shown its dedication to guarantee the independence of audiovisual broadcast and to restructure the public broadcaster, so that it can guarantee a professional and politically impartial management. The digitalization process has still been delayed, by hampering Albania’s chances to complete the transfer within 2015”, the report says.
The challenges for the consolidation of democracy and integration remain, according to the report. Xhemal Gjunkshi, Chief of General Staff of the Albanian Armed Forces, has submitted his request to resign.
Sources from the Presidency confirmed for Top Channel that the President has received his resignation note. Sources from General Gjunkshi confirm that the resignation has been requested by the Minister of Defense, Mimi Kodheli.
Although the Ministry of Defense has not given any notification about Gjunkshi’s request, it seems that one of the causes that drove the Minister to make this request, is Gjunkshi’s mentioning in a series of documents published by wikileaks in 2011.
According to Wikileaks, the United States Embassy was reporting in Washington that Gjunkshi, then Chief of the Commando Regiment, received bribes to appoint military men in peace-keeping missions abroad, mainly in Iraq. The payment was 7000 USD, almost half of the pay that they would receive for their six-month long mission, according to the cable published by Wikileaks.
The group of officers who accused Gjunkshi through a confidential letter, which was quoted in the cable, says that they have notified the highest government leaders for this affair. Gjunkshi rejected the accusations by that time, saying that they were not founded.
Gjunkshi went against the previous government when they tried to turn the Military Home into a Democratic Party headquarters. Through a letter exchange between him and the Minister of Defense, Gjunkshi declared that this building could not be removed from the military’s inventory, since there were a lot of activities being held there and the building was functional.
But Gjunkshi’s position was not taken in consideration by the Albanian General Chief of Armed Forces, President Bujar Nishani, who signed the decision to remove the Military Home from the military inventory, and then it turned into the headquarters of the Democratic Party.
However, the former opposition, now the majority in power, did not see the cooperation with the general as an option that could continue, by taking the reports as argument and saying that Gjunkshi did not enjoy any more the liking of Albania’s strategic partners. Several international media outlets have reported that Albania is among the few countries that are most likely to take the Syrian Chemical weapons for the process of destroying them, but that has not been confirmed by Albanian or American governments. However, the first obstacle for this procedure is the Albanian Waste Law itself.
The new government amended it on October of this year, and article 48 has completely forbidden the import of dangerous materials in the Albanian territory.
An environment specialist, Zamir Dedej, says that the chemical weapons are dangerous wastes, without any doubt.
“Being in a treaty as that of NATO there could be legal spaces which treat these problems, but the Albanian law and the amends made on October 2013, strictly forbid the import of dangerous materials and that’s what are these weapons coming from Syria”, Dedej declared.
If Albania is in the list of countries chosen by the United States, the question remains if our country has the capacities to do this, considering the fact that international organizations have frequently made remarks about Albania’s ability to preserve military waste.
“Certainly that a country with the military abilities of the United States, they have all the necessary practices. But the problem here, especially from the civil society, raises huge questions about the ability to control and monitor all these processes. Because we don’t have the human and technological capacities to guard these weapons as we should”, Dedej declared.
The foreign media declared that Norway, Belgium and Albania are the main candidate countries, but Norway has rejected it by quoting some time limitations and international rules, as the obstacle for their involvement. The United States State Department has released no official comment over this issue.
It is not the first time that our country destroys chemical weapons. In 2007, Albania was the first country in the world that eliminated all its chemical weapons, and they were more than 16 tons of mustard gas and other toxic agents.
The proof for this, according to Ahmetaj, is the the debt that the government has accumulated towards companies that have completed work and have not been paid.
“Based on the data collected until May 2013, the Doing Business team has classifed Albania in the 90th spot, from 189 countries in total. The trend of the second mandate of the former government shows that Albania has deteriorated each year in the business facility. By not paying the contractual obligations, the previous government not only has left a 600 million USD hidden debt to the citizens, but as this report shows, they have scared away potential investors through corruptive practices and irresponsibility. Our government has taken the mandate for addressing all these problems and the critical situation caused by the former government”, Ahmetaj declared. The OSCE Ambassador to Tirana, Florian Raunig, presented at the headquarters of this organization in Vienna the annual report in which are included the recent developments of Albania. Since the beginning the report identifies the challenges that the Albanian government is facing.
“It is a positive thing the fact that the new majority has shown its strong interest to progress with the much necessary reforms, and has promised to cooperate with the opposition in this direction. We hope that the opposition will respond in a favorable way for reaching progress in the reform agenda”, the report says.
Part of this report is the European Union integration process. “Now that the European Commission has recommended the candidate status, the Albanian political class and the Albanian citizens have the opportunity to use this positive inertia for asking a transformation of their country, so that the transition chapter can end”, the document underlines.
A special part of the report is dedicated to the property problematic, saying: “There’s a lack of stable policies and this has brought legal insecurity as regards the property right, the increased number of illegal construction and the irregular development of the real estate market, with consequences in returning properties to their owners”.
The report of the OSCE ambassador expresses concern about the work of law enforcing institutions in the fight against corruption. “The new government has declared war against corruption as a main priority, and they have pressed charges against several officials. The government has promised to plan a new strateg against corruption and the respective action plan. The state institutions that take care of corruption are not yet completely protected from the political pressure, and suffer from the lack of human and financial resources”, the report underlines.
As for the OSCE, Albania is facing problems regaridng the passage from analogue to digital broadcasts. “The new government has shown its dedication to guarantee the independence of audiovisual broadcast and to restructure the public broadcaster, so that it can guarantee a professional and politically impartial management. The digitalization process has still been delayed, by hampering Albania’s chances to complete the transfer within 2015”, the report says.
The challenges for the consolidation of democracy and integration remain, according to the report. Xhemal Gjunkshi, Chief of General Staff of the Albanian Armed Forces, has submitted his request to resign.
Sources from the Presidency confirmed for Top Channel that the President has received his resignation note. Sources from General Gjunkshi confirm that the resignation has been requested by the Minister of Defense, Mimi Kodheli.
Although the Ministry of Defense has not given any notification about Gjunkshi’s request, it seems that one of the causes that drove the Minister to make this request, is Gjunkshi’s mentioning in a series of documents published by wikileaks in 2011.
According to Wikileaks, the United States Embassy was reporting in Washington that Gjunkshi, then Chief of the Commando Regiment, received bribes to appoint military men in peace-keeping missions abroad, mainly in Iraq. The payment was 7000 USD, almost half of the pay that they would receive for their six-month long mission, according to the cable published by Wikileaks.
The group of officers who accused Gjunkshi through a confidential letter, which was quoted in the cable, says that they have notified the highest government leaders for this affair. Gjunkshi rejected the accusations by that time, saying that they were not founded.
Gjunkshi went against the previous government when they tried to turn the Military Home into a Democratic Party headquarters. Through a letter exchange between him and the Minister of Defense, Gjunkshi declared that this building could not be removed from the military’s inventory, since there were a lot of activities being held there and the building was functional.
But Gjunkshi’s position was not taken in consideration by the Albanian General Chief of Armed Forces, President Bujar Nishani, who signed the decision to remove the Military Home from the military inventory, and then it turned into the headquarters of the Democratic Party.
However, the former opposition, now the majority in power, did not see the cooperation with the general as an option that could continue, by taking the reports as argument and saying that Gjunkshi did not enjoy any more the liking of Albania’s strategic partners. Several international media outlets have reported that Albania is among the few countries that are most likely to take the Syrian Chemical weapons for the process of destroying them, but that has not been confirmed by Albanian or American governments. However, the first obstacle for this procedure is the Albanian Waste Law itself.
The new government amended it on October of this year, and article 48 has completely forbidden the import of dangerous materials in the Albanian territory.
An environment specialist, Zamir Dedej, says that the chemical weapons are dangerous wastes, without any doubt.
“Being in a treaty as that of NATO there could be legal spaces which treat these problems, but the Albanian law and the amends made on October 2013, strictly forbid the import of dangerous materials and that’s what are these weapons coming from Syria”, Dedej declared.
If Albania is in the list of countries chosen by the United States, the question remains if our country has the capacities to do this, considering the fact that international organizations have frequently made remarks about Albania’s ability to preserve military waste.
“Certainly that a country with the military abilities of the United States, they have all the necessary practices. But the problem here, especially from the civil society, raises huge questions about the ability to control and monitor all these processes. Because we don’t have the human and technological capacities to guard these weapons as we should”, Dedej declared.
The foreign media declared that Norway, Belgium and Albania are the main candidate countries, but Norway has rejected it by quoting some time limitations and international rules, as the obstacle for their involvement. The United States State Department has released no official comment over this issue.
It is not the first time that our country destroys chemical weapons. In 2007, Albania was the first country in the world that eliminated all its chemical weapons, and they were more than 16 tons of mustard gas and other toxic agents.
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