Tirana, 27 December 2017: At the end of the first 100 days of government, the Minister of State for the Protection of Entrepreneurship gathered in a technical meeting the main stakeholders related to the business climate improvement in Albania such as private sector representatives – both foreign and domestic investors -; representatives from the public sector – such as officials from line ministries and related governmental agencies. Minister Qato presented for the audience a set of selected proposals collected through direct and written consultations with various

The Hague, 8 December 2017: The Integrity Advantage and Collective Action have been the two themes of the ICC’s International Integrity and Anti-Corruption Conference, a yearly multi-stakeholder conference and an initiative of ICC Netherlands. More than 200 participants gathered in the Peace Palace in The Hague on the 8 of December 2017, to gain insight from speakers including Richard Bistrong, a formerly prosecuted sales and marketing executive, Jan Hommen, former CEO of both KPMG and ING Bank, Emily O’Reilly, European Ombudsman, and Roel Nieuwenkamp, Chairman of the OECD Working group on

Tirana, 1 December 2017: We are 2-3 weeks away from the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference [MC11] in Buenos Aires on 10-15 December where we have a genuine chance of making progress towards a more robust global rules framework to support digital trade. Our current trade rules were designed for a pre-digital world so businesses support the urgent need to confirm the application of a global framework that guarantees a level playing field beyond national borders. Digital trade is worth $25 trillion a year to the global

Tirana, 23 November 2017: The global business community is clear on the vital role of the multilateral trading system in enabling economic growth, sustainable development and job creation. One area of particular priority, which ICC believes has real potential to deliver on the imperative to make globalisation more inclusive is e-commerce. Recent years have witnessed remarkable developments in the digital economy, creating unprecedented opportunities for cross-border trade. Studies show that micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) that use online platforms are about five times more likely

Tirana, 22 November 2017: ICC Albania and Albanian Association of Banks (AAB) in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and Economy organized a technical workshop on COSME programme, an EU financial instrument available for SMEs, which took place on the 22nd of November 2017 at Xheko Imperial Hotel. The workshop was organized with the aim of providing financial institutions in Albania with the unique opportunity to become an EU financial intermediary. This event was opened by Ms. Evisi Kopliku – COSME National Coordinator at the Ministry

To read, click Recommendation Paper. Tirana, 15 November 2017: Representatives from the factoring industry in Albania raised some relevant recommendations to authorities and other stakeholders on required actions needed to improve this sector. These recommendations have been prepared by the representatives of the ICC Albania Commission on International Trade and Investment based on the results of the survey conducted to banks and factoring companies, in cooperation with EBRD, during the period July-August 2017. Factoring is considered to be a product designed to offer financing to SMEs, but