TIRANA, June 25- Florian Zekja who is board chairman to the Union of Albanian Attire Producers, said that in recent months many companies with 20 to 40 employees have come up for sale. If it continues at this rate, he warned that very soon there will be the bankruptcy of the attire business due to a domino effect of unfavorable situations, and the consequences will be catastrophic, which might affect 500 businesses with a nearly 30-year tradition and the unemployment of over 100 thousand people.
He said the political crisis has a direct impact on the business, as it affects all exporters and tourism as it creates uncertainties. The biggest crisis is the crisis of trust and prospects for the future. Yet, he compared the depreciation of the euro as a natural disasters for exporters, adding an unfavorable situation also in terms of communication between central institutions and public administration with businesses.
Zekja said there is a hesitation in extending orders from foreign contractors, also due to political insecurity. He added that making new contracts or renovating existing ones is becoming impossible because to come up with new deals it is needed a cost 15 percent higher as a result of the euro fall. This anomaly is heightened by the political uncertainty that is an artificial situation created by narrow political interests. This completely draws the attire business out of the Balkan market of the sector.
“Since this business sector in attire is the most social business (80 percent women from the most vulnerable society), and covers 47 percent of normal exports, its deterioration or elimination would cause irreparable damage to the country, thus my message to politics is to calm down the political situation and take the side of business before it’s too late because the alarm bells are beginning to signal something unprecedented,” concluded Zekja.
