[abe-forum] privatization

[ecala at american.edu]

              *** Albanian Business and Economics Forum ***

Dear all;
My name is Etta, I am from Albania and I am doing an MBA at American
University in Washington DC. Before that I have worked for two years in one
of the GTZ-Projects in Albania that assists the Albanian Government in the
privatization and legislation fields.
Considering that I would say that I know the privatization process in
Albania (in principle and the real life process). I have been myself in
some 20 enterprises that were privatized between 1995-1997.
First let me say that the "shock therapy" was an early option presented by
Gramoz Pashko but was never supported from any government ever since.
Instead what happened was that the small businesses were sold to the owners
(usually no more than 10) who either sold their part to each other or sold
the total business to third parts that change the destination of these
businesses.
The second part were medium enterprises (here are included some potential
good companies like small mines or chemical plants or mechanical plants).
Unfortunately all these companies have old technology and no clue about how
to compete in the market economy. Add the same old staff and no protection
from the government for Albanian products they are almost bankcrupted. Some
of these companies were bought from people with money that destroyed
everything and used the land to build apartment complexes. (Please note
that according to the law all the selling is done by vouchers and due to
their ridiculously low value it is very easy for people with money to
become owners of these enterprises)
The third phase called "the strategic" one that is going on now is the
privatization of Telekom, CASH and mines (copper, oil etc) Because of the
strategic nature of these businesses there is a big corruption in actual
Ministry Staff (mostly regarding the procedures that will favor certain
groups or individuals). I don't know what will happen.
As for the general policy of privatization people who work in that Ministry
will say "Albania is a case study for IMF" but I will say it is more a case
study because everybody who is in power changes the policy of privatization
in favor of groups beneficial to him. As for everything else right now in
Albania it will take a long time even for the potential businesses to give
results due to three main factors:
1- Old mentality in running a business
2-Old technology
3-Nonexistent financial ability to invest for improving the two first
factors.
To be realistic we should add the political instability in Albania and the
total absence of laws in the respective fields.
As for what would I do if I were Mr. Bufi I don't know. I have seen a lot
of people changing totally as soon as they are in that Chair so I would
presume that there is a bad chemistry of power and money. But a beginning
would have been a clear law on privatization and protection of the Albanian
products (for the enterprises that are still running).
I hope this was not too general, etta