Gent Sejko: Economic research - discussions and developments Address by Mr Gent Sejko, Governor of the Bank of Albania, to the 11th South-Eastern European Economic Research Workshop, organised by the Bank of Albania, Tirana, 4 December 2017. * * * Distinguished guests, Dear participants, It is a great pleasure to be here with you today. On behalf of the Bank of Albania, I would like to welcome you to the 11th South-East European Economic Research Workshop and thank you for your continuous devotion and precious contribution. The workshop has been evolving throughout the years, providing a useful platform for researchers, academics and central bankers from the Region and beyond, to: present innovative research findings, foster exchange of views, discuss about key developments in money markets, monetary policy implementation and central bank operational frameworks, and develop long-term collaborative relationships. From a strategically point of view, the main goal of economic research is to provide a strong conceptual and empirical basis for policy-making. High-quality research leads to higher credibility of the central bank and improves the quality of its policies. We strongly believe that a qualitative research increases the potential contribution of the central bank on the financial markets, the economy and the society. Like in other European central banks, economic research at the Bank of Albania is an important function in its overall activity, which has proved to be successful in supporting the policy formulation and implementation processes. New methodologies provided by Research, based on empirical models, have been adopted as standard tools of policy analysis and forecasts by other Departments (e.g. monetary policy, financial stability, banking supervision, etc.). This means that the mission, scope and contribution of research, assume a very important place in Bank of Albania’s development strategy. Its goals consist in: increasing our knowledge and understanding about domestic, regional and global economy, including the functioning of the financial system; developing high-quality models, tools and analysis to support better the monetary policy and financial stability; participating in research international networks (Region and Euro system), to facilitate the exchange of opinions and views with other central banks; and delivering reliable advice to policymakers and sharing findings and conclusions with market participants, foreign investors and to the public. Furthermore, during this year, research at the Bank of Albania extended its activity to include historical research. The outcome was the Conference on “Money and banking in Albania, from antiquity to nowadays”, which brought together many scholars, numismatists, archaeologists, and researchers of monetary and economic history. 1/2 BIS central bankers' speeches Turning to the very reason why we are all here today... Recently, research has focused on various topics related to: financial market infrastructure and potential implications for financial stability and banking supervision; implementation of the new IFRS standards; rapid development of the financial market and its instruments, and institutional developments in domestic and international markets. All of them are currently hot topics of economic research and I am happy to note that they occupy a significant part of this workshop’s agenda. Additionally, I am very happy to see that traditional issues of monetary policy and developments in the external sector of the economy will also be discussed during the two days of the workshop. In my opinion, such a broad coverage makes the agenda quite interesting. We are confident that research papers that will be presented during the workshop days will provide some guidance on how to approach several issues arising from the recent economic developments, regionally and beyond. Many of them are similar across countries; therefore, collective cooperation would be quite useful. Without further ado, I would like to invite you to actively participate in and conduct a very lively and fruitful debate. I truly believe that constructive discussions and comments, which will certainly take place during the workshop, will contribute to enhancing further cooperation among researchers, and between the institutions. For all these reasons, I thank you once again for your invaluable contribution to this annual meeting of researchers and wish you a successful and fruitful workshop! 2/2 BIS central bankers' speeches