September 8th, 2021
In view of the upcoming French Presidency of the EU Council, on September 8, 2021, Cooperation and Development Institute in Tirana organized the online event: “Enterprise France in the Western Balkans: Boosting Economic Cooperation”. The event is part of a larger initiative implemented in partnership with the Austro-French Center for Rapprochement in Europe, the Euro Créative platform, the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri), the Jean Jaurès Foundation, the European Policy Institute in Skopje and the European Policy Center in Belgrade.
The focus was on the re-engagement of France in the Western Balkans on the economic level, emphasizing the way that the French enterprises assess the local opportunities, identification of areas of interest with focus on energy and Green Agenda, the factors that attract the French investors and an overview of the French potential partners in the region.
Several important actors from politics, regional cooperation structures, economic diplomacy, business and think tanks participated.
After the event kick off with the Welcoming Note by Mr. Florent Marciacq, Deputy-Secretary General OFZ – CFA, H.E. Elisabeth Barsacq, French Ambassador to Albania delivered the Welcoming Address. The Ambassador shared her assessment of the investment climate, the opportunities and the main concerns the French investors faced in Albania. Special focus was put on questions for human resources in all the region, but especially in Albania ” – the ambassador added, highlighting the need for further technical training of the workers.
In her Keynote Remark, Ms. Majlinda Bregu, Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council, mentioned shared socio–economic issues that the Western Balkans will face in the near future. “The socio-economic situation and the problems of the Western Balkans six are challenging and need to be tackled together with strong EU support” – she added. She also put emphasis on problems that surround the Green Agenda and its alignment with the EU green deal.
Mr. Liburn Aliu, Minister of Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure, Kosovo, in his keynote speech emphasized the important role that Kosovo has as a crossroad of transport and energy networks in the Western Balkans. He underlined the commitment of the Kosovo Government in facilitating FDI, the importance of learning from each other, also quoting French investment in Albania and in Serbia. In the end he presented a list of mature Kosovo-based projects of interest for EU and other interested investors.
The event continued with a lively exchange with Mr. Xavier Mulliez, Project Director Voltalia Albanie and Stanko Kantar, CEO Belgrade Metro & Train, moderated by Ardian Hackaj, Director of Research, Cooperation and Development Institute.
Mr. Mulliez provided valuable insights regarding the investments of Voltalia, A French company, in the Western Balkans and in Albania particularly. He also added that the whole progress with the projects that they are currently working on in Albania is going well, positively impacted also by the regional integration of the energy sector in Albania.
During his talk Mr. Kantar, Director of Belgrade Metro and Trains provided an overview of the biggest French involvement in the Balkans. On top of technical expertise, financial muscle and operations power, Mr. Kantar underlined the importance of the “knowledge transfer” opportunity that is created during this cooperation. “In the end we will be the operators of the metro and we have already started preparing for this, that’s why we started the cooperation with RATP ” – he added, highlighting the importance of the knowledge shared between all the parties that are involved in this project.
Mrs. Britt Horschke, Director of KfW Regional Office for Albania, shared concrete examples on the cooperation experience between AFD and KfW in Albania highlighting the example of the policy – based landing operation to support the Albanian energy sector reform.
Mr. Hautberge, regional director of AfD, overlaid the specificities of AfD work in the Western Balkans, its scope of work, financial muscle and instruments available. He concluded its intervention with concrete illustration of AfD contribution in the region.
The event was closed by the final remarks of the H.E. Christian Thimonier, French Ambassador to Montenegro, who emphasized the importance of good cooperation between companies and French embassies. Building bridges is one of the tasks of economic diplomacy. The Ambassador also puts the focus on the political level which should remain mobilized on the justice and economic reforms in order to attract and ensure investors to invest in future regional projects.
The event: “Enterprise France in the Western Balkans: Boosting Economic Cooperation” closed the cycle of Western Balkans events, and will be followed by a Paris-based forum organised by the end of November.
More to follow.
