Rama's statements on procurement, head of the American Chamber of Commerce: Insufficient! Tenders are to be done once and for all with clear criteria!

Jaçi in an interview to VOA

 The President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Albania, Mr. Enio Jaço has been in the United States for several days for meetings with American officials but also with representatives of the Albanian community. Voice of America (VOA) had an interview with Mr. Jaço.

VOA: The American Chamber of Commerce and Industry recently published the Investment Agenda, a report with 40 recommendations for the business climate in Albania. What is the purpose of these recommendations and how much do you hope they will be taken into account by the Albanian authorities?

Enio Jaço: The American Chamber has had a long discussion about the investment climate, the "Investment Agenda" and now is the time to act. All parties must act and this is the main purpose of the recommendations. So we have to go from awareness to action. From the first reactions, we have had, both from the opposition and from the government, I think we will have a positive approach to these recommendations.

VOA: One of the problems, especially for foreign entrepreneurs, is public competition and the suspicion that in a good number of cases the winner is predetermined. Prime Minister Rama a few days ago in two different meetings spoke in critical tones. How do you see the statements of Mr. Rama considering that he has been governing the country for eight years and has had all the mechanisms to intervene.

Enio Jaço: I think the statements are positive. The awareness is very important for all of us, it is important for the public, they should understand all the problems we have with public procurement. But on the other hand, the statements are not enough. Along with the statements, from what we have followed in the media, I have gladly noticed that there is a desire to prepare new legislation, which will consider significant improvements in the field of public procurement. We have not consulted this legislation, so I can not speak in detail about the quality of their changes, but there are two elements that we have not noticed. The first is transparency. It is very important that Public Procurement is done once and for all with clear, transparent criteria, with Open Data criteria. And the second very important is to eliminate the exceptions because we have many cases that do not go through the standards of the public procurement process but go through special cases. If we have these two elements, I think it is a very good start.

VOA: Albania is a small country to be attractive to large American companies, however this year we have two strong companies that have entered the field of gas and construction of the Skavica Hydropower Plant. How ready is Albania to be attractive for American investments?

Enio Jaço: I think that both of these investments are very big for Albania, they create other important opportunities. We have every chance to think that these will be two very important investments, which will pave the way for other investments. In this sense, everyone should be clear about the potential that Albania has to attract such or even smaller investments. But what is important, these two investments have had the direct involvement of the Albanian government and the American embassy in Albania. That is to say, not all investments can happen with such a high level of involvement. So it is very important that we meet the criteria where we create a climate where investments will take place independently, what we call organic investments. In this aspect, Albania has a lot to do, we are in a process which has just begun and we hope that we will do our best but we have a lot of work to do.

VOA: Mr. Jaço, a functioning rule of law is security for investors, Albania suffers in this regard, and the justice reform is seen as an opportunity to change that, however, business confidence remains low. Are the recent actions of the Special Prosecution Office SPAK seen as a signal of hope to have this change?

Enio Jaço: Personally, I clearly think so. However, I also understand very well that the Albanian public has a kind of skepticism and it is normal. All of Albania is a country that does not have a tradition with strong public institutions to have trust and it will take a long time until it reaches such a point and we will be really able to judge whether what it is doing SPAK will now be at a very positive level in the long run. Personally, I see positive signs. We will have to be patient and look even longer because it is just the beginning.