Albania grow numbers of employees thanks to the Employment Promotion Fund
Published on: 31 March 2015
Prime Minister Edi Rama and Minister of Social Welfare Erion Veliaj, accompanied by Mayor of Lezha Viktor Tusha and local MPs, visited on 31 March 2015 one of the fish processing companies that benefited from the Employment Promotion Fund. Thanks to the financial support benefited from this fund, the factory “Albafish” plans to hire additional workers from unemployment rolls in the Job Offices.
The entrepreneur said that the Employment Promotion Fund has halved the labour costs and doubled the number of employees. In addition, he said to have benefited from the project for the training of workers.
The Prime Minister said that the government projects in the field of employment promotion have given expected results and have made the government optimistic to raise additional funds for this purpose. According to the Prime Minister, this employment promotion policy increased the number of employees from approximately 4 thousand people to 7 thousand expected this year.
“I am very happy, but also very impressed by everything we saw here today – the Prime Minister said – because it is a very meaningful event of the extraordinary passion and perseverance of an enterprise, but also of the cooperation with the government in view of the employment promotion. Last year’s employment fund, which was also the first year this new scheme was implemented, was three times higher than the employment fund of 2013. When we started this change, it was really sad to see that the job offices outnumbered the people employed by them the previous year. So, the state’s outgoings to keep people in offices were higher than the revenues produced by them in view of new jobs. Meanwhile, the fund tripled last year with a very encouraging result, because actually 6 times more companies applied for this fund. Some 361 companies benefited from the fund and 4 thousand new jobs were created from this program only. This year, we doubled last year’s fund and expect to reach 7 thousand new jobs from this program only.
The Prime Minister was impressed by the fact that such factories are oriented by European standards, export growth and expansion in foreign markets.
“It is very important to note that in the region of Lezha, despite the difficulties and poverty inherent for many years, there is a new class of entrepreneurs, very passionate and especially very informed about and connected to the reality beyond the sea. It’s really impressive to see how these factories work based on European standards, export growth and with an aim to expand their position in foreign markets. Meanwhile, we are entering a new phase of utilization and processing of local raw materials here in Albania, in order to have a closed cycle process.
Thanks to this new class of talented, courageous and informed entrepreneurs, 77 projects have been implemented in Lezha, from which 414 individuals have benefited. Funds are made available for this area even this year, in order to increase further the number of employees. In addition, training programs have been included through professional work practice for young graduates, women, and for a variety of sectors that have proved to be successful in Lezha, such as sea-related industries, or other activities related to agriculture, livestock and tourism”- the Prime Minister said.
Minister Veliaj noted the government’s annual commitment to increase the employment promotion fund.
“We have doubled the employment promotion fund, and I believe that for all enterprises this is probably one of our success stories. When we was given the administration of this process, in the beginning there was a scandalous fund of 900 thousand dollars that anyone who owns a business knows it is not enough even for starting a business, not to mention for a government to restore employment in the country. We tripled it in the first year and doubled it in the second year. This means that it has been tripled and doubled respectively also for the region of Lezha”, Minister Veliaj said.
In addition, Minister Veliaj announced that in its next meeting the government will approve the new Labor Code that will offer more guarantees to labor protection and employees rights.
Employment promotion programs will include employment subsidies through job training, employment of persons with disabilities or professional practice for graduate students.