ardian fullani : on building capacities for policy design and implementation opening remarks by mr ardian fullani, governor of the bank of albania, at the workshop “ on building capacities for policy design and implementation ", tirana, 3 december 2009. * * * dear participants, it is a very great pleasure for me to open the proceedings of this two - day workshop, entitled “ building capacities for policy design and implementation ”, organised for the first time in albania by the bank of albania, in co - operation with the center of excellence in finance ( cef ), ljubljana, with support from the european commission, european central bank, and international monetary fund. welcoming you here in tirana, allow me to express my gratitude for the excellent work done by the cef in the course of these years, to the benefit of our region. since our washington meeting last april, the effects of the global crisis increased their presence in our region ; however, as i have already emphasised even earlier, they did not immediately concert to full blown economic and financial problems. the extension of crisis effects to the real economy, to the budgets of governments and to financial sectors of the region, was mitigated by sound macroeconomic policies pursued in the recent years and by the availability of international monetary fund funding on an unprecedented scale, in coordination with support from the european commission and the ebrd. due to this intervention, and mostly due to prudential policies pursued by the central banks with regard to financial stability and financial supervision, the region prevented not only twin crises in our banking systems and foreign exchange markets, but also any kind of meltdown. nonetheless, this crisis has been a wake - up call. we agreed on this in our meeting last april, in washington, among senior policy - makers from the region and from eu and ifis. now that we have managed to prevent the crisis, we must start the evaluation of the collateral damage of our response to the crisis. in this respect, it is very important to asses not only the long run sustainability of our region ’ s equilibrium, but also the effectiveness of our short run response. it is crucial to plan and implement our future moves intelligently for its reversal in line with new normalities. while we are not out of the woods yet, it is important to make sure that the past year ’ s fiscal appetite that characterised our region does not become part of this new normality. actually, we need to do some deep thinking about aspects of our

up its contribution in areas such as financial stability and policy co - ordination, so it has a head - start. in the field of capacity - building, we need to consider : what are the top priorities, and where are the gaps to be filled through initiatives in terms of training workshops, technical assistance, and cross - country exchanges of experience. this will bring us to look carefully at the design and implementation of fiscal policy, among others, and the way policies come together through domestic co - ordination processes. and we also need to identify the needs in the areas of monetary and prudential policies, where the cef ’ s member countries have urged it to continue expanding its activities. this is a full agenda, and i am sure it will not be the last time we get together to exchange views on these issues. i believe strongly that we stand to gain immeasurably from considering these challenges on a regional basis. we can learn from each other ’ s experience ; we can engage at times in a joint dialogue with the external actors in the region ; and perhaps our political leaders can find some opportunities to launch reform initiatives in parallel – for example, in developing structural reforms to help promote a flow of new capital to, and within, this region. in this spirit, i look forward to very fruitful discussions – now in tirana and in the future!