Representatives from 27 countries and 12 international organisations are meeting today to review Albania’s performance in implementing its economic, structural and institutional reform programmes. Participants commended Albania for the strong economic growth achieved in the last year and for its success in improving revenue collection; its recent achievements in enterprise privatisation, and efforts towards reforming and privatising the financial sector. Albania’s good performance was found to be particularly significant if evaluated against the background of the Kosovo crisis and its negative impact on the Albanian economy. Donors, however, noted the severity of the crisis in the electricity sector and called for Government’s commitment to implement its strategy aimed at improving sector performance. Donors also stressed the importance for Albania of further strengthening its public administration and judiciary in order to ensure that Albania could take on the obligations inherent in the EU’s Stabilisation and Association Process.

This Consultative Group Meeting was co-chaired by the European Commission (Ms. Catherine Day, Deputy Director General, Directorate General for External Relations) and the World Bank (Mr. Christiaan Poortman, Country Director and Regional Coordinator for South East Europe). The Albanian Government was represented by Foreign Minister Mr. Paskal Milo, Finance Minister Mr. Anastas Angjeli and deputy Minister for Economic Co-operation and Trade, Mr. Engjell Skreli.

At a press conference, the meeting co-chairpersons were joined by Finance Minister Mr. Angjeli. Minister Angjeli explained that his delegation had briefed participants on Albania’s most recent achievements in the context of the EU Stabilisation and Association Process, the preparation of its Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) and in the afternoon he planned to brief donors on the recent initiative in the area of public resource management, known as the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF). " The purpose of our Medium-Term Expenditure Framework", explained Minister Angjeli, "is to strengthen budget planning and achieve a more effective use of public resources, linking Government policies to expenditure plans and introducing greater transparency in the budget formulation process".

As part of the MTEF, the Government was also presenting its Public Expenditure program for 2001-2003, which would be used as the basis for donor discussions on their ongoing and intended support.

The co-chairpersons, Ms. Day and Mr. Poortman, said: "It is clear that the international community present at this meeting considers the ongoing reforms by the Albanian Government to be based on sound policies and we are confident that there will be important donor support for their programmes".

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