Governor Sejko attends the round table on: “Economic development of Albania: Challenges and opportunities”

On 15 September 2021, the Governor of the Bank of Albania, Mr Gent Sejko, attended the round table on: “Economic development of Albania: Challenges and Opportunities”, organised by the British Embassy in Tirana.

The discussions in this round table focused on the main issues that Albania is currently tackling, as: the challenges posed by the rapid climatic changes; the economic difficulties arising from the history of the country; the situation created by the Covid -19 pandemic; and the governance challenges.

The Chair of Board of Trustee at Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Sir Suma Chakrabarti, the Chief Executive at ODI, Ms Sara Pantuliano, and the British Ambassador in Albania, H.E. Mr. Alastair King-Smith, attended this round table.

In his speech, the Governor stated that it is very important that the building of a better future starts with finding a safer path to exit the pandemic. On one hand, the economic policies should continue to fuel the recovery and avoid a sudden withdrawal of stimulus. On the other hand, attention should be paid on the monitoring of possible risks arising from debt overhang, both in public and private sectors, and the increase of inflation.

Also, Mr Sejko emphasised that the banking sector played a quite crucial role in the economic response of Albania against the Covid-19 pandemic, thus supporting the recovery. The lending strategies implemented by banks should be balanced between the risk/return optimism and the service to community interests, by providing more funds to businesses for establishing more work places.

In addition, Governor Sejko underlined that the development of information technology gained momentum during the pandemic. It has enabled the financial innovation and has challenged the classical banking models. The new payment and credit instruments, the new actors in the financial market, as well as the digital banks and electronic payments have bolstered the use of financial services.

In this view, the banking sector should focus in adopting the business strategies and practices to the development trends, for example the IT revolution, which has enabled the shifting of a part of business online, by enhancing both the operational flexibility and effectiveness.

Concluding, Mr Sejko pointed out that we should carefully analyse our challenges of the future development, our structural weaknesses, and the global development trends, while trying, at the same time, to turn them into opportunities. The Governor highlighted that a sustainable and stable growth requires a clear agenda of reforms in various fields: fight against informality; financial education and inclusion; foreign investments; as well as regional and cross-border collaboration; which affect the European integration process of Albania.

At the end of the discussions, the panellists at this round table answered to the questions of participants.