“SPI Albania – SPI Adriatic” project presented

TIRANA, Jan.21- The SPI Albania (Special Projects Initiatives) project was presented on January 19th in Bari, Italy, which also announced its support for the establishment of the project. The project’s goal is the further modernization and development of the Albanian financial sector. Ardian Fullani, governor of the Bank of Albania, Goran Kneߥvi欠Deputy General Director for Banks Supervision at the Central Bank of Montenegro, Nichi Vendola, governor of Puglia Region, Biagio Bossone, World Bank representative, Seyhan Pencapligil, the Albanian Association of Banks representative and Giovanni Ferri, Director of the Italian-Albanian Centre for Economic and Social Research, were present at the press conference held in this occasion.
SPI Albania is promoted by, and will be managed with the assistance of, the Convergence Program, a program financed by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance and administered by the World Bank. The creation of SPI Albania is part of the broader SPI Adriatic, which is currently being developed with a view to promoting similar initiatives in Albania’s neighbouring countries. Established in Tirana, SPI Albania will catalyze cooperation among financial authorities, the local banking community, financial services users and civil society in designing and implementing a modern framework of regulatory reforms. These will seek to improve financial intermediation (with particular emphasis on the needs of small/medium size firms, households and local infrastructure) and to enhance its impact on the sustainability and inclusiveness of Albania’s economic development process.
In his speech, the Governor of the Bank of Albania, Ardian Fullani, expressed his gratitude to the Puglia Region for supporting this initiative. Fullani has said SPI Albania is very useful in promoting the modernization of the Albanian financial industry. “Consistent with the Bank of Albania’s long-standing commitment to promoting regional collaboration, the Bank of Albania will do its best to facilitate contacts with relevant authorities in neighbouring countries to have a coordinated development of structure that promotes the convergence of banking standards and practices towards those of the more advanced EU countries”. In conclusion, Fullani highly praised this project and considered it to be a symbol of the heightened attention of the European Union toward the efforts by the countries in the Adriatic region to accelerate their integration into the union. SPI Albania is among the priority initiatives of the Italian-Albanian Center for Economic and Social Research, recently established by the Puglia Region to incubate regional development cooperation projects to be expanded with support from the European Union.