Ruli visits Germany and Croatia to strengthen ties

TIRANA, April 23 – Minister of Economy, Trade and Energy Genc Ruli held an official visit to Germany and Croatia last week trying to strengthen bilateral ties with these countries. In Germany he went following an invitation of his counterpart of Baden-Wurttemberg Ernst Pfister. In a meeting both officials talked on small and medium-sized businesses. Ruli took part at a conference on the European Charter on such businesses held with all 25 EU member countries. The Baden – Wurttemberg land in Germany is among the richest with an annual GDP of 30 billion Euros. Some of the country’s main and biggest corporations are based there like Daimler – Chrysler, Siemens, Bosch, Hugo Boss, SAP, etc.
During his visit to Zagreb and meeting with his counterpart there Ruli discussed on co-operation in the field of small and middle entrepreneurship and energetic. Business meetings were held, among other things, between these two economists. The meeting was dominated by topics on co-operation in the field of small and middle entrepreneurship and energetic, as well as the participation of Croatian companies in the privatization process in Albania. The two parties agreed, according to Minister Vukelic, to start the procedure over a co-operation memo of the two countries in the field of small and middle entrepreneurship, and Albania was asked to support the initiative on establishing a regional centre for education of small and middle entrepreneurs in Croatia, which has strong support of the European Commission for the realization of this project because of the progress that was made in this area in the past few years. Croatian minister said a more significant economic delegation will participate in this year’s Autumn Fair, which should give additional incentive to the development of economic relations between the two countries. The total trade between Croatia and Albania increased last year by almost 50 percent compared to 2005, but it was at only 33.6 million dollars, out of which more than 30 million dollars refer to Croatian export into Albania. Ruli expressed interest on co-operation with Croatian companies in the field of energetic. He pointed out that Ina oil company was invited to join in the privatization of the Albanian national oil company.