Interview with President of the German-Albanian economic association DAW, Hans-Jurgen Muller.
– DAW – is working for almost two decades with the aim to improve Relations Germany – Albania. – If a friend asks you for the most proud achievement of association you are leading?
– When I was retired in 2005, (at former times I served as managing director of German foreign trade association), I was asked to become the president of the German – Albanian economic association, which was established in 93, with the overall goal to promote bilateral ties.
When I took presidency I said, I want to fulfill two big goals, one: to establish German- Albanian bilateral conference every second year, where every body, engaged in bilateral economy, is included. We started at 2006 with the first conference in Frankfurt, and than we had two conferences in Tirana, and to make it short, last year in 2012 we had the sixth conference in Tirana, where there were present 85 German entrepreneurs coming from Germany and 200 other participants coming from Albania. I think to establish this conference and to make it a success is milestone in the bilateral economic ties. The second goal: In 2005 when I was elected, in those days we, we had German embassy, of course but we had no private association for economic relation with Germany. I tried to establish bilateral chamber of commerce which in very beginning was very complicated because, than we had to ask our Ministry of Economics to provide some budget for the initial face. To make it short today we have bilateral German – Albanian chamber of commerce, in Tirana with 60 members, there are also some members from Austria, and Switzerland. This is a very strong voice in Tirana for economic development between Albania and Germany. I think those two goals that we achieved are one big step in long lasting interest that we have in developing economic ties with Albania.
– Fulfilling two initial goal, is it mission accomplished? What can DAW do more/differently nowadays
– Nowadays, we want and, – we are having more ties regionally in Albania. For a very long time we have been focus only in Tirana, which no question is very important, but there are also very interesting cities and regions and to build up bilateral contact with them was also the main goal of association. This time we are here with the small delegation to build up ties with the city of Berat.
– If an investor, an old friend of yours, comes today in DWA and ask you: why should I invest in Albania and not elsewhere in the region? What would be your answerſ
– That would be a complicated answer, because this can only be solved individually. I want to give you one example, being in Berat, we visited a textile company. They had some contracts in Italy, and now they have established contracts in Germany, and they improved very much with the quality control and with that they are now very competitive in middle of Europe, this is one example that I would like to tell German company that they already have contracts to invest in this textile company to make it a long term basis. But on the other hand you can not answer with a strictly yes, (I always try to convince German companies to invest in Albania), because in other fields, the circumstances are not competitive with the European level, and than is a risky task to invest in Albania, so this must be answered individually.
– What can Albania do more to attract more FDI (Foreign Direct Investment)?
– FDI is coming to countries where is good growth rates in one hand, where the business and product you are you are specially interested, is good, where political and economic framework, is good. Albania has all this, although we have some problems, with tax sector and administration laws, so circumstances are still a little bit to complicated. The answer is yes, but not full hearted yesƣould be a little bit better.
Germany is the biggest EU country contributors of aid to Albania. – According to your evaluation what has worked well and not so well in development aid to Albania?
– My opinion is that overall projects are going very well, but I always, try to establish an additional factor: I’m of the opinion that aid should also go to private business, where you have long term business plan, to give them an initial start and let them later on do them business by themselves on their own account.
The link with business and economic aid is to small, while on the other hand in big infrastructure projects the situation was much better.
– There is a saying which goes like this: “don’t miss an opportunity in the crisis”. In the time of economic crisis what are opportunities to attract German investors to Albania?
– When we are in the crisis we have to work very hard to come out of the crisis and establish plans for better time. In Germany this always means to look abroad and try to be competitive in foreign market, because it is more interesting to your earn money in foreign market with good competition than in very strong competitive market in Germany. For Albania there is an interest in quite a number of sectors, the logistic harbor sector, textile sector, this sector I think is still a little bit underdeveloped but has a good chance in the European market -, there is agriculture food, where by improving quality standardsŠproducts are very good, let say the tomato is the best in Europe but to market it you have to do a lot of things. to invest in those sectors, to work together with German companies I think there is a very good chance.
– Tirana Business park is the largest private German investment project in Albania. How is the progress of this project?
– We are very found of the project, not only that is the biggest project for the time being, but we see it on a long term basis as a good chance to bring here German companies as well as the companies from the other countries to Albania! We are working close together with the management of Tirana Business Park for broadening the idea, through our connection, in southern Europe, in Germany and so on.
– Albania has an image problem abroad, related with the past and difficult transition? Some observers call it “frozen image” of Balkans. Do you share this concernŠand what would be your suggestion to address better this problem?
– You are absolutely right, when I’m ask from a journalist in Germany what is the problem that you have with Albania the first and biggest one is the image. Image is rather bad from history, and nowadays, image must be bettered by many actions. There is no silver bullet on this. We had been bringing more and more tourist from Germany to Albania and their experience is very different from the old image. We have for example Albanian good restaurants in Germany but they did not offer you Albanian wine! Why not?
The economic ties between Germany and Albania are running well, although they can be better any time, no question for that, but we have very little relationship on the culture side. For example to present the country on the international tourist board in Berlin is one big point, the other one is to present Albanian food, especially Albanian wine on the green week, as we call it exhibition for agriculture product also in Berlin! There is a lot of space to do more to present in Germany, Albanian music, Albanian culture, Albanian artists, at least once or twice a year. I think this is all can be combined to try to improve the image of Albania.
– Have you had a chance to see a football match in Tirana when German national team is playing?
– Last year during the European championship. I saw the match when Germany was playing with Greece team and it was very interesting, there were some friend of Greece and lot more Germans and Albanians encouraging the German team.
– What do you like most about Albania/Albanians?
I would say three things: youth in Albania, young people are so open for new possibilities, in learning, going abroad, this is outstanding thing which will be profiting Albania in the long run. The second thing: high hospitality we always have in Albania and the third thing is your surrounding, you have beautiful weather, and a very interesting countryō
– What is the city/place that you recommend to your friends to spend a weekend in Albania/Tirana?
– I would try to convince them to tour Albania, because mountain region is very interesting, beaches in the South and there are also ancient places of roman and Greek civilization, Greeks and roman monuments are to be seenŠMy suggestion is: make a tour to Albania!
