Berisha says fighting informality is decisive for international integration efforts

TIRANA, May 30 – Prime Minister Sali Berisha said Wednesday that fighting informality in the country remained a top priority that would guarantee the country’s further steps of integration into international organizations.
Berisha took part Wednesday in a meeting of non-governmental organizations to discuss informality and the urgent need to eliminate it.
Berisha said that the government would seriously consider suggestions from the civic society in that fight, especially in creating a national strategy on development and integration.
Berisha said that the fight against informality would result in establishing the rule of law, exploiting all resources in the country, and modernizing and consolidating the economy in order to successfully cope with the challenges of integration.
The premier said that the country had identical economic indicators as Finland, one of the world’s most developed countries, with a GDP rise of six percent, inflation at 2.4 percent, and budget deficit at 2.6 percent. “But I don’t’ believe we may compare (the two economies),” he said.
The GDP growth will be largely defined by the success in the fight against informality, he said.
Berisha said that some sectors in Albania, though he did not name the sector, had a 99 percent rate of informality.
“This government’s stand on informality should not be mixed with that against criminality. The informal economy is different from a criminal economy,” he said. “We are determined to act against the two of them.”
Berisha said that the country needed fast reforms during which there would also be misunderstandings or pain, at a time when “the law has turned into an absolute minority.”
Berisha said they were displeased with the current macroeconomic indicators because with its existing potential Albania should have had double digit growth, to become more attractive to foreign direct investment. “The defining condition in my concept and that of the government is the fight against informality,” which he considered as the battle to establish the rule of law, a real blossoming of the market, the exploitation of all resources, modernization and consolidation of the economy.
“For all these reasons, the government is determined to pay any price, to take any step, to pass any law to formalize the Albanian economy, to put it on the basis of formality and the law,” said Berisha.
During the meeting, Berisha also had a clash of words with Erion Veliaj of Mjaft. Non-governmental organization had accused the Prime Minister of being the top informal person in the country after hiding electoral expenses of his Democratic Party.
The prime minister denied that and said that the State High Control had the power to check their expenses and report to law enforcement officials anyone from his Democratic Party who had violated the law.