DEAR DEPUTIES!

The parliamentary group of the Democratic Party,

requested this debate motion with the PRIME MINISTER, regarding an issue that worries everyone and has an impact on everyone!

Economic aid, or more precisely, the removal from economic aid of families that have benefited from this aid until yesterday!

But, – as I listen to the discussions today in this room;

The thing that makes the difference,

between the orientation of your parliamentary group and that of the Socialist Party, is the fact that:

 

You talk about about 20,000 families that have been excluded from the economic assistance scheme without considering the ability of these families to be part of the human resources capable of work!!

 

20 thousand families, which, you call excluded from economic assistance, have come out of this scheme,

to give way to families in complete poverty, economic assistance for which offers them opportunities for living.

 

• There are 20 thousand families that have come out of a scheme where electoral abuse and corruption no longer takes place!
• There are 20 thousand families that have been abused at the expense of 10 thousand new families that have entered the economic assistance scheme for those families that actually suffer poverty!

The new scheme and this system, aims at alleviating poverty in the country and not abuse and unfair profit with it!

Through this scheme, aid goes directly and transparently to those families most in need, –who cannot ensure the fulfillment of basic vital needs, due to limited social-economic skills and opportunities.

10,063 is the number of families who have benefited for the first time in the scheme, which were excluded under the old scheme only because of the absurd exclusion criteria of the old scheme, which you are objecting to today.

 

Let the Albanians understand today,

that you are protecting a scheme that allowed space for favoritism and abuse – in contrast to the system that has started to be applied today, which leaves no room for interpretations, but, like any stable system, is based on the statements made by the applicant families themselves and the cross-checking of these data by the responsible institutions..

Do you know what the new scoring system has resulted in?

19,700 false statements by abusive entities?

It discusses the exclusion from the scheme of families that were part of this scheme until yesterday, but does not talk about:

• the public interest provided by this scheme,
• for the transparency of the distribution of this fund offered by this new targeting system
• and not even for the exclusionary criteria that were unfairly applied until yesterday!

 

If you protest these absurdities, you are free!

 

But the truth is different!

Today,

deciding whether the family should receive economic assistance is based on a scoring system:

• Which no longer allows subjectivity
• Which in a unified way makes it possible to cross-check information
• analyzing and confirming this information with all line institutions
• to avoid any kind of human and subjective intervention!

If the opposition accuses the Government of lack of transparency, today we inform you that this new scheme completely eliminates the unfair advantage!!!

As such, the public should be made aware of the fact that this new scheme has removed the fragmented economic assistance that the old scheme offered to about 150,000 families!!

As this scheme is built to come to economic aid and to support every family that is in need of this aid, and not to increase the number of beneficiaries by fragmenting payments only for electoral or political influences.

Then how would you explain that the old scheme of economic assistance allowed Petref from Berat, self-employed and father of two daughters, both employed, to receive economic assistance until December 2017??

Or Aldo from Peshkopia with economic aid and private firms in the name of his wife, came out of the verification in the KKB system???

Meanwhile the woman head of the family in need was excluded from the scheme because a washing machine was found in her house???

What could be more unfair than this?

Of course, the Government has also thought about those families that do not reach the scoring levels to be beneficiaries of this scheme.

The special fund ALLOCATED to Municipalities for these families of 6% has doubled compared to the old scheme, which planned only 3% of this fund for these families!

 

This government is notable for its deep and structural reforms!

 

This was also the trust that the voters gave to this government: to make and finalize big and difficult reforms, regardless of the electoral costs, today Albanians deserve a state of law!

Excluded groups must understand that in their function,

the government is working through deep structural reforms, the removal from extreme poverty of those families who suffer it today. 

With the introduction of the new scheme,

 we aim to improve the equality and efficiency of social assistance programs in Albania.

Also, our objective is to qualitatively improve the opportunities that will be offered to the new generations, enabling children raised in a poor family, in addition to daily bread, to receive the necessary education to have a more secure future.

For this, the Government will support the children of families benefiting from the scheme through subsidies or payments, about 100 million dollars provided for them, to attend the quiet school and to prepare in a qualified manner for tomorrow’s labor market.

We started 5 years ago and we will advance the fight against poverty with structural reforms that make the state,

-create jobs

-and bring lasting well-being.

Dear MPs!

Let me turn your attention to the contribution , each of us, must make to revitalizing the workforce’s desire for work!!

Today, Albanian entrepreneurship is in need of trained and qualified human resources.

Here I am no longer talking about political colors, as entrepreneurship has no color!

There is potential to grow, and this cannot be done without the labor force!!

Entrepreneurship today is persistently looking for a stable system in the country’s economy!

This enterprise, which is the largest contributor to the income of the state budget,

-where a part of which is allocated for economic assistance to poor families,

-today it hurts from the lack of labor!

Lindita is a successful woman entrepreneur in the fashion sector!

And you know what the problem is?

She does not find human resources, men and women in tailoring, in order to be able to work at full capacity of her company,

– because the women and men she contacts every day – totally able to work,

they refuse to sign contracts with the company and pay social security only because I repeat only because  they do not want to give up economic assistance!

Dozens of contracts have been rejected by Albanian fashion factories this period, which approached the local market, due to an increase in cost in countries like Romania, which they have rejected out of desperation, only because of the lack of labor.

Lindita says that the women she meets do not want to give up economic assistance by being employed in her factory! Able-bodied, able-bodied men and women ON FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE allowed by the old welfare scheme ou defend today!

 

I have visited HUNDREDS of businesses throughout Albania, where most of them have reported that the reason why they work below capacity IS NOT TAXES, but LACK OF HUMAN RESOURCES.

DEAR:

• 70% of those who claimed but were not included in the new scheme are people aged 25-45. An age group this, fully able to work.

 

• As Minister of State for the Protection of Entrepreneurship, I TRANSMIT to you what the enterprise expresses as a concern:

• It is a luxury for our country to see them working below capacity because there is a lack of manpower.
• Export less, because those who are able to work WILL NOT work as they lose economic assistance.
• To see factories go bankrupt because there are those who want to live at the expense of the whole society.

Support and guidance for employment of the needy, in this mandate is our real priority!!!.

I am sharing with you exclusively, some figures of the current need for employment of the entrepreneurship in the country TODAY, derived from an analysis of skills needs, which is based on a survey conducted in over 2500 mainly private and public entities.

• The tailoring sector needs more than 7,100 new recruits during 2018,
  • including 3,800 in the garment sector and more than 2,500 shoemakers.

• The telecommunications industry anticipates about 4,554 new recruits.
• About 3,800 new recruitments are needed by employees in Services, mainly in the existing bar-restaurant activities in the country..

• Today, the construction industry needs 2,115 workers, remaining a sector with high employment requirements.

• Likewise for other industries such as:
  • 692 new places foreseen for telecommunications or textile engineers,
  • 686 mechanics, 900 cooks and 794 operators in food production, etc.

So as you can see, the market and the need for employment today exceeds the total number of families excluded from economic assistance when those families have a composition of resources capable of work!

All of us must orientate this needy layer towards qualifications and training to return to a secure basis of their employment.

 

Today, we must feel the need to orient young people towards employment in the sectors that guarantee  their employment today and not towards applications for economic assistance.

 

While the able-bodied seek to parasitize with economic aid,

• 68% of companies operating in manufacturing, participating in the survey, answer that they have difficulties in finding human resources..
• Similarly, 72% of enterprises in the field of energy answer.
• The same is true for sectors such as transport (in 73%) or hotels (in 48%).

Please direct the discussion in this important hall full of legislators towards policies capable of promoting the education of the society, towards increasing their capacities and orientation towards sustainable employment, instead of crying for individuals excluded from this scheme, fully able to work and in a better economic condition than those whom the new scheme has today included in economic assistance.

 

Our awareness, and this scheme, offers the opportunity to correct any undeserved exception by verifying them and putting them in place by correcting the decision taken.

In the meantime, jobs and training will be offered to all those who want to work, and we will guide them with our policies exactly in the sectors where there is the most need, while you are free to offer the Albanians only your propaganda for the return of to that mindset that left Albania behind, n complete poverty, as your only alternative to prevail over the needs of this people for development or even worse in the mindset to seek money in dubious sources in order to block the most important reforms important for Albania and its integration!

Thank you.