By P쳰arim KALO
As one of those who started the journey towards the unknown of private enterprise in the first years immediately after the 90s, I consider an obligation to share some of impressions that 20 years of the history of the law firm holding my name left in me. There is always someone that starts creating something new before you. So I was not the first start the law practice. There were others before me. A handful lawyers (around 40) including friends like Maks, Bastri and Kathleen, had started the law practice in 1992. They named their firm “Teuta”, in the honor of Illyrian queen, immediately after the law practice was reinstated by law as an important institution that would guarantee the representation and defense of the rights of the parties in the civil and criminal processes. We also witnessed how other friends started every day to build rather quickly, with the bravery of a crazy person, private businesses, originally small, but as the time passed by, got bigger, and at the same time, solid and sustainable.
Those who happened to live and work here the last 20 years can witness how attractive Albania become as a spot to visit, following the fall of the curtain of self-isolation. That was likely due to the mystery that surrounded it from such half a century self-isolation, but also as an attractive business or investment spot, mainly because of low labor and living cost. On the other hand, the interest kept increasing due to a weakness found – that of the relative ignorance of the respective Albanian partner on business terms. I recall to have seen a certain wave of entrepreneurs, literally speaking, in the agricultural sector, where the first initiatives and joint-ventures popped up, as instigated mainly by Italian entrepreneurs. Today on both sides of the Tirana-Durr쳠highway one can see signs or posters on the facades of buildings that read “Celebrating the 20th anniversary”. Coca-Cola Bottling Company celebrates the same anniversary here.
Two decades are too little for a country, a state, but are significant when it is about sole proprietorships or small partnerships, because their efforts to build professional, and also moral values in a market like that of Albania, full of surprises, distortion and uncertainty are, of course impressive.
At the end of the day, we can say today where we are, but also can talk about some important factors that, in the opinion of the author of this article, if kept in the mind of politicians, of the government, in particular, may create better conditions and especially the necessary quietness and comfort to businesses in order for them to enhance the business volume and employment, impact on the life of community and improvement of standards. Although it may sense as a well-known recipe’, it is worth giving mention to some of them.
Political willingness to change the economic life
From the years left behind, many achievements might be listed as milestones, for which credit go to both wings of political parties that have dominated the political life of the country and oddly enough, as if by math, have shared the ruling for this 2 decades almost by half. These achievements motivated first of all by political willingness but also as a result of the pressure from our donors and international monitoring agencies, may be defined as legal and institutional reforms in areas of property, company law, including intellectual property rights, banking, finance, privatization process of state enterprises operating in strategic sectors of economy, the setting up of regulatory entities in sectors of energy, water and telecommunications, setting up of the competition authority, etc. Amongst things that have impressed me in person here, is the speedy process of adoption of modern legislation, even in areas that were completely unknown like money laundering prevention, secured financing, concessions, etc.
The introduction of the necessary legal and institution framework have been important conditions precedent for attracting foreign direct investments. Our colleagues from developed countries can hardly believe when they hear that in 1994 we could handle matters concerning well known business organizations like Reuters, Shell, Air BP, etc.
Thanks to liberalization and privatization policies and the granting of incentives, including fiscal ones, in 93-94 the Albanian market was becoming interesting even for giants, mainly looking with a certain hope our natural resources. It was for that reason that, irrespective of the small size of the Albanian market, multinational companies like Occidental Petroleum, OMV, AGIP and Shell did not hesitate to take the chance.
Liberalization of banking, financial and telecommunications services is another achievement worth mentioning. It is to emphasize that the banking sector is mentioned as one of the most valuable assets by international agencies, due to its successful regulatory and supervisory role and systematic intervention in the interest of stabilization of the economy.
Lawyers are not, and cannot be, indifferent when it comes following and analyzing what happens in the political life of the country, especially the events that have an impact on their professional activity, so in that context, I personally follow with considerable attention the statements of statesmen, and also actions of certain state agencies in the ambit of the existing or new platforms and programs, in the interest of the strengthening of the rule of law. I am of the opinion that the foundations of a new democratic state like ours, as foundations of any new building structure need concrete, and then strong pillars, for the structure to stand intact, even to hurricanes.
Public registries
In my opinion, the registries of a state are foundations on which the state building can stand secure, as they record the inventory and guarantee the accuracy of the properties owned by the state and its citizens; they tell exactly the number of citizens, which translates into reliable lists of voters, so influence one the accuracy of elections, etc. I remember in 1993, whilst visiting legal institutions in London, as invited by the Law Society of England and Wales, the first visit in their program was Land Registry. I keep mentioning this as I believe the organizers intended to convey the message: “It is here where a state begins!”
Not only real estate registries but also other registries like those of census, business organizations, so any book or registry that keeps the inventory and issues proof of ownership, social or marital status are of great importance. It is that the reason why they often say that one of the factors that influences in the flow of investments, especially in the direct ones, is the uncompleted land reforms, in particular the uncertainty that the lack of integrity of the registration of the land creates. In the last 20 years, except some initial efforts in 1991 in the direction of the registration of land ownership and the initiation in 1993 of the process of restitution of properties to the real owners, hundred million US dollars have been spent for advice, drafting of laws, software programs, equipment and technology, networks, legalization and registration projects, again obtainment of the certificate of title from the public registries does not give the comfort, but the stress that holder of the certificate suffers due to the fear that it can be challenged is not over yet. Life has showed that in many cases legal owners keep going to courts to “defend” their title. This reminds me of a joke people from Shkodra invented when the law of restitution of properties to real owners was introduced in 1993. It is all about how the man was not feeling secure that someone could claim to “own” his wife. Some days ago met a colleague who was sharing his concern on a property located in the beach of Durr쳮 The building of real owners (oddly enough they keep naming them “ex-owners”), recognized by the Property Restitution and Compensation Commission, was privatized in 2011 by the tenants who were living there on basis of a permit issued by the state and now that the real owners want to claim the process as null and void, this seems a mission impossible as the tenants are in fact 43 families and to have a process with so many parties in practice is like counting the crops in the depots of a ship.
Justice reform
The other challenge for any government that gets the mandate after elections, due to the difficult situation, is justice reform. In an interview in Java Magazine I expressed my view that “justice reform is like a hot potato which no one wants to touch; from 1990 to date the justice reform has been put in the agenda as a must always by the international partners”. Furthermore, have expressed myself that the system suffers from serious diseases that need a lot of time to cure and heal, and this makes the reform a mission impossible, but anyway, some of them can be cured through specific measures, without interfering in the judicial process, but only in the case administration, respectively through (1) transparent allocation and assignment of cases (2) control of professionalism in the judicial process and reasoning of the judgments and (3) introduction of laws in very detail so that judges would find it difficult to use a wide discretion to interpret the law as they do now”. So to contribute to the justice reform (focus is on the judiciary as there is where the rights of citizens, as well as of the state, are finally decided upon) drafting of detailed laws is a solution. To illustrate this, while we are advising a client on an employment contract termination, searching opinions and articles on this matter in the internet we identified an article on the Labor Code of Estonia that said expressly “court judgments did not touch a comma from the law as the law is so detailed that the courts would not have room for interpretation”
Statement of Prime Minister Rama for the undertaking a reforming process of justice system, especially of the judiciary, is a fantastic news, as “hard” moves, irrespective of political hues, are welcomed by all of those who make the earning through fair business and hope to have, in addition to material and logistic conditions, the necessary quietness that would help them to work better. As we live in times when the artfulness can conquer the “bravery”, this statement is to be embraced and supported energetically.
Certainly time will tell how the reform that was announced as the challenge for the time-being will come true.
Another important factor that would contribute to raise the integrity of the judiciary in the eyes of the society is the positive communication and appreciation with the healthy part of judiciary as the judges with high integrity hold the majority. As well, the government must include in the process of the reform consultations with the lawyers who can assess the performance of the judiciary and give valid advice on how to focus less on the worm and more on the apple that is being damaged by it.
