ardian fullani : experiences of the bulgarian national bank in its road towards the escb opening speech by mr ardian fullani, governor and chairman of the bank of albania, at the workshop experiences of the bulgarian national bank in its road towards the escb, organised in cooperation with the bulgarian national bank and the gtz office, tirana, 5 september 2005. * * * dear participants, first of all, i would like to say good morning to all of you. today ’ s meeting with our bulgarian friends takes place in the context of several activities that we have recently organised with a clear focus on the future challenges related to the integration process. i am pleased that the fall season of this year starts with this activity and first of all, i avail myself of this opportunity to extend my gratitude to the representatives of the bulgarian national bank, the gtz and to my friend, professor bolle. since the very first days of my appointment to this position, i have publicly declared that bank of albania ’ s institutional preparation in its road towards the escb remains our main challenge. meanwhile, in all the meetings that i have had with the representatives of the regional central banks, as well as with high officials from brussels and the ecb, i have underlined the idea that the future of the eu will be both more prosperous and unproblematic if the countries on its periphery look not only towards brussels, but also if they start looking to each other. we – the central banks of the region – should represent an example in this direction. as pioneer institutions of progress, the central banks of the region should cooperate with each other in order to expand the road for a further political, social and economic integration. i believe that the chances for a rapid and secure process of european integration could be accelerated if we will have – among others – a healthy and safe financial and banking system, which should be able to advance the economic development of the country. nevertheless, in order to materialise the objective for the approximation of their model with that of the eu member states, we hold the opinion that the central banks of the transition countries have more difficult “ homeworks ” than the classical responsibilities carried out by a central bank. speaking in more concrete terms, this has to do mainly with the challenges related to the development of markets, with the unification of different norms and standards and with enhancing credibility in the country, thus aiming at the creation of an atmosphere that inspires confidence to foreign investors. even though they have passed

competition. we got a splendid feedback for this from the school children. children ’ s knowledge about banking and rbi has amazed us. i hope that our endeavour in this direction has laid a strong foundation for the future citizens of the country to become fully financially literate. 8. before i finish, on behalf of the reserve bank, i want to thank the hon ’ ble finance minister shri pranab mukherjee for his very strong and enthusiastic support for financial literacy and financial inclusion, and the chief minister shri yeddyurappa for the co - operation extended by government of karnataka under his leadership.