Miss Crans Montana

For Mr.Charlie See, owner of Miss Globe International, discovering Albania came quite late on in his career. He first arrived here in 2004 to organize the beauty pageant Miss Globe International. The Albanian government of the time financially supported the organization of one of the beauty contests of the world in an effort to promote Albania. Since the day Old Man Charlie See, dressed with impeccable taste and bubbling with enthusiasm, discovered Albania, he has been back every year. Almost every year Miss Globe International, with its President Charlie See, has been held in Albania. The moment he steps off the plane at Tirana International Airport Mr. Charlie See makes only two declarations: first, he says that there is no other country as beautiful or appropriate than Albania to organize Miss Globe International. His second declaration is about his business partner Petri Bozo. Charlie See says there is no young man more fitted in the whole world to organize a Miss Globe International than Petri Bozo. The last time, Mr. See went even further with his first declaration. At the airport Mr. Charlie See declared that the only country in the world where Miss Globe International should and could be held is Albania. So what is the link between Mr. Charlie See, Miss Globe International and Crans Montana? At a first look, there does not appear to be any link. Crans Montana is not a beauty pageant, but a very serious forum of the promotion and debate of economic issues and of development. Although they are two entirely different things the Crans Montana Forum has started to resemble Miss Globe International. Since 2005 when the Democratic Party came into office, the Crans Montana Forum has been held in Tirana every year. The Forum met in Tirana this week too. And, of course, when things are exaggerated what was expected really happened. The participants in this year’s edition of Crans Montana Forum were the Chairman of the Union of Chambers of Commerce of the Republic of Albania, the Chairs of the Chambers of Commerce of Shkodra, Durres and Vlora, Albanian Minister of Economy, Albanian Minister of Finance, Albanian Minister of Energy, including Albanian Minister of Agriculture, Prime Minister’s suite and (at the end) the Prime Minister himself. Foreign ministers were from Kosova and Belgium. On day two, things got so bad that the meeting of the Forum resembled a government seminar.
The organization of the Crans Montana Forum three years ago, for the first time in Tirana, probably took place at the right time and in the right country. First of all, because a new government had only just come into office; secondly, and even more important, was the fact that this government undertook several concrete actions to attract serious foreign investment. However, when the Crans Montana Forum is organized in Tirana every year, it begins to bear a stronger resemblance to Miss Globe International and its principle protagonist Mr. Charlie See. While the Albanian public and media may have an interest in seeing a bevy of beautiful young ladies come to Albania, selected among some of the world’s beauties, the same cannot be said for the Miss Crans Montana. Albania is a country which nowadays has a desperate need for investments and the promotional forums or other creative forms, including economic incentives are vital to help transform the country into an attractive investment prospect. But as the old Albanian saying goes, “A meal with salt, but salt with measure.” Albania has been handed an invitation to join NATO and, apart from other things, that is an exceptional message of security, of a normal country from the viewpoint of laws and a functional state. Nonetheless, instead of the concerts which are still being organized to celebrate this membership invitation, it would be far more useful if this time it was used to carry out deep-going reforms on the functioning of the state and of the rule of law, particularly in the justice system. The fact that this invitation to join NATO has been extended may bring a foreign investor to Albania, but if there is no trust in the Albanian courts and in the other law-enforcement institutions, that investor would soon decide against investing his capital in Albania.