On July 1, 2015 was held the first meeting of the Investment Council, chaired by Minister of Economic Development, Tourism, Trade and Entrepreneurship, Mr. Arben Ahmetaj, at the same time the Chairman of the Council.
The meeting was attended by members of the Council that are representatives from government, international partners and business community. Part of the Council are ministers Mr. Blendi Cuci and Mrs. Ermonela Felaj, Governor of the Bank of Albania Mr. Genti Sejko, Head of the Tax and Custom office, Ambassador of EU Delegation, representatives of the World Bank and IFC, EBRD and business representatives, Executive Director of AIDA – Mr.Genti Beqiri, Chamber of Commerce and Industry Tirana, American Chamber of Commerce, British Chamber of Commerce, Italian Chamber of Commerce, Business Albania etc. The Council act as a consultative body for the suggestions, discussions and undertaking initiatives, reforms in order to improve investments and business climate in the country.
In the opening speech, Minister Ahmetaj emphasized the importance of the Investment Council and presented a draft reform within deregulation, which will be submitted for the final decision to the Council of Ministers. One part of the reform will be the revision of authorizations, permits and licenses. The government’s commitment in this regard is to create facilities on doing business in Albania.
The second phase of this reform will handle permits and licenses in order to abolish those which are considered unnecessary. This reform will provide a unique window for business registration and licensing through joining the National Registration Center and the National Licensing Center.
The Minister Ahmetaj emphasized the positive turn of the Albanian economy, with a 4.7% increase of consumption.
The Investment Council aims to institutionalize constructive and transparent dialogue on investment climate in order to improve and increase competitiveness in the Albanian economy.
The Minister concluded the meeting by sharing the information that World Bank and our government will have a project in order to improve the business climate. This is subject to a budgetary support for a series of reforms in order to improve the business climate and this is a very good news for the Albanian economy.