The colorful populist show offered at a joint meetings of the government of Albania and Kosovo in Tirana this week cannot hide the weakness of economic ties between the two countries.
Despite a shared language and ethnic identity, the two countries have been isolated for a long time from each other, particularly in economic terms.
Kosovo is a former unit of the Yugoslav Federation, and that means that over time it developed trade ties with the Yugoslavia not with Albania. Even though Yugoslavia no longer exists, those trade ties endure. Trade data shows that despite the fact that the former parts of Yugoslavia are now all independent states, from the economic standpoint, the deep ties of the former large country are still there for all of them.
In Albania’s case, the last time major cities of Kosovo were an integral part of the economy of northern Albania was back in 1913. And the idea of an ethnic market – regardless of good intentions and desires, patriotic slogans or songs – does not work well unless it is competitive in the wider markets.
Notwithstanding the improvements in road infrastructure which have made connections between Albania and Kosovo much better, trade relations remain at low levels.
Moreover the two countries have been caught up in petty disputes, blocking products ranging from flour to cement from moving in between the two. The business communities blamed the governments for the situation, but there were also likely business protection motives behind the spats.
Without trying to be prejudicial of future results, from what we have seen so far in terms of joint government meetings, they seem to be high on patriotism and low on substance.
Most of the agreements signed contained no concrete instruments to facilitate economic cooperation. They were generally engagements to work together in principle. In other terms, talk not action on cooperation.
Even in cases when concrete proposals were found in the texts, they simply aimed to aid the governments in accomplishing goals not to enforce them.
Experts believe the obstacles that hinder economic cooperation still exist and will not be eliminated without proper strong instruments to implement viable ideas. These must be charted by experts with a single aim: to increase economic development in both countries.
The Kosovo government has been struggling economically since declaring independence, and Albania’s once strong economic growth has come down to almost nothing. Much of it has to do with the global crisis, but some of it relates to the two economies themselves.
As such, the weak economic ties between the two countries are also tied to the weak economies in both countries. Other factors are the low degree of law enforcement, the high corruption level and the influence of monopolies in the economies of both countries.
Moreover, in both joint meetings there has been carefully designed image to focus on historical national unity themes. These colorful scenes don’t help economic relations, but they help cultivate populist and nationalist spirits on both sides of the border.
Rama is politically correct when he says that the two countries will come together under the roof of the European Union. But the statement also plays into the nationalist spirit that exists in sectors of the population of Kosovo and Albania. Ultimately, Rama has to choose between being a modern prime minister of Albania or aspire to be a pan-Albanian leader, a position to which he was not, and cannot, be elected.
