Albania’s Minister of Culture Mirela Kumbaro held a two-day visit in Puglia from January 11 to 12, 2016 to build collaboration bridges between Albania and Italy. Accompanied by Consul of Bari Ermal Dredha, Kumbaro held a meeting with Prefect of Bari Carmela Pagano, Mayor of Bari, Antonio Decaro, and Culture Assessor Silvio Maselli.
The meeting focused on establishing cooperation between Albania and Italy, as well as exchange information on cultural institutions’ management patterns. All parties expressed their support and agreed to create an art calendar, which will help both countries to get to know each-others’ culture better.
During her visit in Bari, Kumbaro held a meeting with the President of Regione Puglia Michele Emiliano and the Assessor of Economic Development and Tourism, Loredana Capone. During the meeting, the parties agreed to strengthen the countries’ relations, as well as consolidate the experiences and projects of cooperation and integration in the field of culture and tourism.
Kumbaro and Emiliano discussed cross-border cooperation on art and culture as a part of the Adriatic-Ionian strategy. “There are endless cooperation and interaction opportunities in the Balkans. For example, Puglia as well as Albania, both border the Adriatic Sea. We are therefore, together, an important part of the history of this sea’s evolution and its path towards freedom, able to explain our civilization. We must try to make a couple of projects that can remain in our collective memory operational. If you will be strengthened, and we give you a hand, we become stronger as well, strengthening our presence in the European Union,” Emiliano said during the meeting.
“We have to build cultural and artistic itineraries between Puglia and Albania, as well as between individual cities- itineraries made possible thanks to the sea that unites us, but also hurts us, often taking away nameless hopes and ageless lives,” he added.
On behalf of the Albanian government, Kumbaro stressed how important the cultural cooperation is for both countries and regions. “The Albanian government has intensified its cooperation and has established a new relationship with the region of Puglia. Nowadays, in this region come not only Albanian immigrants, but also artists, students, professionals from various fields, and entrepreneurs; just like many Italians go to live and work in Albania. We are here to institutionalize these relations that already exist,” Kumbaro said.
“In 2014 we have increased exports to Albania by 34.6%, thanks to regulating relations between us, which did not exist previously. We are absolutely ready to intertwine our experiences,” Capone said about the economic data that link the two countries.
According to the Albanian Ministry of Culture, a collaboration agreement on cultural and artistic itineraries between Puglia and Albania, as well as between cities and archaeological sites, was established. “Cooperation with Puglia brings us closer to Europe, and we are willing to share information and to identify the best practices in the field of culture and tourism, by taking the models of Salento,” she said during a press conference.
Kumbaro also held a meeting with the President of Petruzzelli Foundation, Gianrico Carofiglio, at the Petruzzelli Theatre in Bari to establish a collaboration agreement between the Petruzzelli Theatre and The National Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Tirana in 2016.
