Regular Government - Donor Round Table chaired by Minister for Innovation and ICT, Mr. Genc Pollo on 3 December 2010

On 3 December 2010 the Government of Albania held the regular Government - Donor Roundtable, co-chaired by Minister for Innovation and ICT Mr. Genc Pollo and Ambassador of Switzerlad, Yvana Enzler, as rotating chair of the Donor Technical Secretariat. The event gathered senior officials from the Government and the donor community in Albania.

On behalf of the Government of Albania, Minister for Innovation and ICT summarized the major achievements and reforms GoA has undertaken within last six months and their impact in the development of the country and EU integration process. He greeted the decision of European Commission on 8 November 2010 on lifting the visa regime for Albania as a historical event for the Albanians, and pointed out that visa-free regime concerns a matter of freedom and dignity for every Albanian, which in the same time comes along with big responsibilities. Concerning the EC opinion and recommendations Minister Pollo said that “ European integration is the most major priority of the Government of Albania. The next milestone in the Albania's EU integration process remains the approval of the candidate status that we are committed to achieve within this mandate. In this context, the latest European Commission report becomes for the Government a working program, in the best interest of the integration of Albania in the EU. This means that all the priorities set and all the shortcomings identified in this report will become the priorities of the Albanian Government over the next months and coming years”.

Minister Pollo highlighted that Albania has become a success story in the fight against corruption. Fight against crime, corruption, including money laundering remains an area of utmost importance and donors have supported with different project in strengthening anti-corruption measures. Regarding public administration, the vision of GoA is a small but effective and impartial public administration based on professional merit.

Minister Pollo stated that considerable progress is made especially in the implementation of the Paris Declaration Agenda, where important evidence is represented by the implementation of the Harmonisation Action Plan and successful completion of the Assessment of Procurement Systems.

Ambassador Enzler addressed the roundtable on behalf of the donor community and expressed their satisfaction with the considerable progress made towards the implementation of the Integrated Planning System, especially recent establishment of a new Performance-Based Monitoring mechanism for the National Strategy for Development and Integration 2007-2013, which will also help to better align the external assistance with government priorities. She emphasized the need for the donors and Government to work together towards increased complementarity between the EU financial support to Albania’s enlargement and the aid offered by all bilateral and multilateral donors to reach the main goal for Albania, EU Integration.

“ I would like to assure you that all donors are fully committed to further strengthening the partnership with Government, in completing the EU requirements and in furthering the aid harmonisation agenda,” she said. Ambassador Enzler added that although major efforts have been made by the Department of Strategy and Donor Coordination to co-ordinate the sector working group architecture, donors hope that line ministries would assume a more active approach in line with the Paris Declaration.

The DSDC Director, Valbona Kuko, made a detailed presentation of the IPS implementation and Progress on establishing the new results-based NSDI monitoring and emphasized that now Albania has reached a point in which the strategic framework is completed and focus need to be shfted toward monitoring. Director Kuko recognised the achievements of the joint work of Government and donor community in strengthening coordination through Sector Working Groups (SWGs), on embracing and adopting new coordination mechanisms aiming accountability and managing for results.

The meeting is considered to have great impact on donor coordination issues by serving as good forum for information sharing and constructive dialogue on improving effectiveness of donor aid in Albania.