By Sali Berisha
As some of you may know, Albania is a very young nation, the youngest in Europe, with almost half of its population under the age of 25. This represents one of my country’s greatest assets and unique advantages. Indeed, the young generation is Albania’s greatest hope for the future.
Each time I address a young audience, I ask my self the same questions: How to bring Albania to their age? How to make the country as energetic, vibrant and full of hope as they are? The same answer comes always to my mind: Invest in their education, bring Albania to the age of technology, promote a digital life, create a strong information society.
It is for this reason that my Government has launched the initiative Albania in the Age of Technology as a top priority of its agenda.
This initiative, along with the rule of law and liberalization of economy, is a fundamental condition for the success of other economic and social reforms. It is also the only way to gain the time our nation lost during the communist regime.
As part of this initiative, my government intends to achieve:
Expansion of Internet penetration and broadband connection to every household in the country. In this regard, we are closely collaborating with large technological companies to increase the number of PC penetration in Albania, granting over 250,000 ADSL ports free of charge, launching WiMax services, while also seeking to overcome technological challenges such as the last mile for broadband penetration. In addition, we will provide every Albanian child and young with a computer.
Heavy investment in eGovernment services from eProcurement to eTaxes. We are increasing the adoption of collaboration tools, digitalization of the system of archives and utilization of advanced database systems.
Establishing a favorable legal and taxation environment for foreign direct investments with a particular focus on attracting major technological corporations. The government is prepared to grant concessions and physical assets such as real estate to corporations willing to participate in the development of the local technology sector.
Bringing Albania to the age of technology is a crucial condition for achieving transparency on all governance processes, increasing accountability and enabling citizen participation in policymaking. It is also an effective mechanism to boost our efforts in fighting corruption, modernizing education and improving tax and custom administration. Fulfilling these objectives will not only strengthen our democracy, but it is a sure path to shorten our process of European integration.
The evolution of the Albanian society into the digital age represents the standing ground for the advancement of all social, political and economic reforms. The potential impact of a digital life, in many ways, reminds me of the transformational role that the Reformation had on the European society which made the Bible accessible to everyone. Similarly, technology will make information and knowledge accessible to all in Albania.
Allow me to conclude my remarks with a personal experience. 28 years ago, as a young medical doctor who had just completed his residency in France, I came back to Albania with a lot of ideas for research in my field. As I began my research work in a modest laboratory, I met a British gentlemen – not sure if he was a Scot – who had brought with him an Apple II computer. (My apologies to Microsoft, but as you know the computer was not running on the DOS system.) With my small team of researchers, we managed to program the computer in Fortran. The presence of this small computer enabled us to complete an original research study in hermodynamics, which was first published in London and later in many scientific journals of the world. So, this computer fundamentally changed my life.
As such, this experience shaped my belief that technology is the best way to change my nation and advance my country, to make up for lost time and to reach new horizons.
