Saturday, February 07, 2015

“Decentralization in Albania: achievements and the way ahead” was the central topic of the first seminar with the participants of Albanian School of Political Studies, held on 7 February 2015, in Tirana. The guest speaker for this event was the adviser of minister of local issues, Mr. Enea Hoti. The focus of the presentation and the discussion served as a further analysis on the Albanian administrative reform topic. He mentioned the need of the territorial reform aiming at reducing the number of local government units as a pre-condition for a fast and successful decentralization.
Mr. Hoti shared with the participants an overview of the current stage of decentralization (political, administrative and fiscal) and its impact on local governance. He stated that following several positive steps and the existence of a sound legal framework for decentralization, there is is still much to do on raising the qualification and professional skills of the new local government authorities.