“With 400 Italian or Italian-Albanian companies operating in Albania, Italy is the country’s leading investor in terms of number of operators, and the second for the value of our investments”. These comments were made by Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi, speaking at the conference on “Albania in Europe: New opportunities for economic and industrial cooperation for Italian businesses”. The Conference took place during the visit by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Albania, Sali Berisha, who was received at the Quirinal Palace this morning, 7 May 2012, by President Giorgio Napolitano.
Economic collaboration benefits from greater mobility
“Economic collaboration”, added Terzi, “has also benefited from the greater movement of individuals between Albania and the European Union as a result of the visa liberalisation that entered into force in December 2010”.
Minister Terzi pointed out that “the Italian Government has every confidence in the future of Albania and intends to go on supporting the country in its pathway to economic and social modernisation”. It is no coincidence, he said, that “in the last 20 years Italian Development Cooperation has devoted over 540 million euros to Albanian the form of donations and credits. The Memorandum signed in 2010 envisages a further 51 million euros, and a debt conversion agreement. This is the first agreement of this kind that Albania has signed with a donor country”.
