Topi urges greater cooperation to cope with crisis

TIRANA, Nov 23 – President Bamir Topi took part last week at the 6th Economic Forum for South-East Europe held in Croatia.
Topi said that his and other regional countri4s aimed overcoming the effects of the global crisis and also at integration towards the European Union explicitly saying that “the fate of every country to complete such task lays exactly in the hands of our countries’ politicians.”
he urged the regional countries to work together to cope with the crisis.
“It is about time for the governments of the Balkans countries to seriously consider concrete projects of cooperation in the energy sector, especially in construction of interconnection lines, joint investments in the production of energy, establishment of a unified energy system, determining the direction of development in specialized energy based upon the effectiveness and efficiency secured by each country resources, and also to lobby and prepare together the projects of Balkans’ gas supply,” he said.
He also mentioned faster cooperation in the transport sector, especially the railway link with the European Union railway system, reciprocal commerce of agricultural products, giving more breathing room to the sector of tourism.
The non-consistent foreign deficits, the rising and disturbing levels of unemployment, fiscal deficits, unstable economic growth, disintegration of inherited industries, the low credibility of the banking sector in general show that the institutions are still fragile.
“That is the reason why a faster and effective cooperation in the above areas, above all, would naturally integrate the local markets of Balkans under the CEFTA framework, due to almost similar characteristics, being preliminary conditions for integration of each Balkans country into the EU and also due to the real request of application of standards implementation in the member countries of the EU.”
Present day politics in the Balkans is the concrete cooperation among our countries, he said.
Topi also urged that the absence of Kosova representatives is a hindrance that must be overcome.
Next year such a meeting is to be held in Albania.