AECO Consulting shpk with the support of the Austrian Economic Office in Albania – Advantage Austria, had a presentation at Rogner Hotel of the services we offer, our cooperation agreement with Confida Austria, and also on the reasons why reputable international investors should work with us.

In addition distinguished guests talked about the advantages of investing in Albania. Vice Minister of Finance, in charge of Fiscal Policy, Mrs. Irena Beqiraj, said that the tax reform in terms of taxation rates is not the main or the fundamental feature that the foreign investors would consider in order to consider investing in a country. A lot of other issues have to be tackled accordingly, such as the already started action against informality which would contribute to fair competition, and better implementation and execution of the laws by the relevant institutional authorities.

One of our main distinctive features in the consultancy market is that AECO built an outstanding reputation by always working in full legal compliance with local and international laws, applying high quality standards and anti corruption policies. It has been a privilege to work like that in a market where this privilege is reserved mainly to big international consultancy firms with headquarters overseas. We are positive that we will continue to maintain such trend, and also extent our services to formal Albanian businesses, which at some point will be aware that it would be necessary to comply with the rules and legislation, due to the severe actions against informality and tax evasion that the government is undertaking as a positive step towards legal compliance, fair competition in the market and a stronger state budget for a sustainable future of the country.

Venue: Tirana Business Park, November 3, 2015

Organizer: GIZ Albania

The focus of the conference was on the most needed professions in Albania. Discussion on the need to shift education from Universities to vocational training, in order to better serve the business needs for qualified workers, especially the needs of the foreign investors interested in working in Albania, taking into account one of the competitive advantages of the Albanian market economy, that of still low cost labor force.

Identification of specific needs and integration into the future plans for vocational training of all the interesting stakeholders, adding to that the existing political will to assist the process, will serve also the necessity to have a rank of the most needed professions in Albania. That ranking on the other hand will help the young workforce to better position themselves when selecting the relevant education and training for ensuring better compatibility with the labor market requirements.

Venue: Deutcher Industrie und Handelskamer Berlin

It was interesting to see the presentations of the Central East European countries of Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland and Czech Republic,   with in focus the economy and business development. These countries have identified themselves as a unique group growing faster towards West Europe, rather than the other South-East European countries (Bulgaria, Rumania) or the Balkan Region countries.  They offered real well developed competitive advantages such as highly developed nanotechnology (Czech Republic) or automotive sector (Slovakia) or R&D research in general (Slovenia). In terms of fiscal policies and other incentives for foreign businesses they came as a package of tax reliefs and incentives, concentrating their integrated offers to make the whole region attractive to high standard investors such as those coming from Western Europe.

German and Austrian sustainable businesses, which had already invested in these countries, showed their success stories with associated SWOT analyses and demonstrated assurance that they will continue to remain and continue to invest in these markets.

This activity was organized by IDEAL and Honorarkonsulat der Republik Albanien for NRW, Germany,

With the participation of Ministry of Dispora Kosovo, Ministry of Social Wealth fare and Youth, The Ministry for Labor and Social Integration of Nordrhein – Westfalen Land, Albanian Embassy in Berlin, youth participants from Albania and Kosovo living in Germany and in Albania.

Better than words such event can be illustrated by photos.