TIRANA, June.10- The final item on U.S. President George Bush’s busy agenda during his brief visit to Albania on Sunday was a meeting with small business owners in the town of FusheKruja, half an hour from the capital of Tirana. Opening the discussion, President Bush said: “One of the exciting moments for our trip to Albania is to meet with small business owners. Laura and I thank the Mayor, we thank the owner of the restaurant, and we thank these entrepreneurs for joining us to talk about your story, about your dreams, and about the opportunities a micro-loan program, provided by the taxpayers of the United States, is giving you to create jobs. And so we’re excited to be here. Thank you for coming. And we’re looking forward to hearing your stories.”
The roundtable was made up of participants who received micro-credit loans funded by USAID. Participants shared their stories and President Bush identified with some of them. One of the stories was told by a sheepherder who said he had considered emigrating in order to find work. He did go to Greece, worked there for six months and saved some money. When he returned to Albania, he bought some land, but it was very difficult to raise enough sheep in order to have a thriving business. Eventually, though, with this micro-credit program, he purchased 60 head of sheep. He also was able to secure a mortgage to build a house on his land so he could be near his livestock in order to assure the success of his business. And now he has, with the help of the program, over 400 head of livestock. “Sheep herding is looked down upon; it’s not a very sophisticated profession. Some may think it’s not very dignified, but I feel proud to work in this critical area because it helps with the businesses and it helps also feed my country,” he said to the President. And the President said, “Let me remind you of something. We come from Texas, and raising livestock is a very proud profession. And I’d rather sit down with a livestock raiser than a big-city lawyer any day.” The micro credit loans start from $25, and then up to a certain amount. The micro-credit lending service, said two years ago they only had 550 credit applications; today they have over 1,200 clients. They are dedicated to customer service and focused on the mission of helping small businesses maintain stable businesses, which helps the nation’s economy. Boa has given permission for the agency to turn into an actual bank, which was praised by President Bush as a clear sign of progress. The president shared his feeling that there is real potential in Albania, and in this context commented that thee flat tax will be helpful to small businesses. Bush reconfirmed the good will of American people to help out by saying that “America wants to help you.”
U.S. President’s visit called a boost to tourism
U.S. President George Bush’s June 10 visit has created a better image of Albania, reassuring potential visitors about the general safety of traveling to Albania. Being in the limelight of international media, Albania had a chance to reveal some of its tourism potential. “Albania is a country blessed with natural assets of rugged mountain landscape, a long Adriatic coastline and a prime geographical location across the sea from Italy, with Greece on its southern border. This is a country poised to become the new jewel of the Mediterranean region and it aims to boost its potential as a tourist destination,” writes a prestigious tourism magazine enttiling the artile “Albania is the new jewel of the Mediterranean.” This article was written by David Brownie who followed the visit under the project of EDEM of USAID in Albania, a succeful initiative to promote the image of Albania which has now been taken from the National Entity of Tourism and supported by local businesmen as well. . The US international development agency, USAID, is actively engaged in providing training in the tourism industry to increase Albanian competitiveness and to raise the standards of workers and service providers to meet the demands of a global market. Cruise lines have discovered the Albanian cities of Saranda and Durres as ports of call, and curious day trippers from the Greek island of Corfu are now a common sight.
