relative to other capital flows could be more immune to capital drain during crises. remittances are not simply expression of emigrants ’ fondness to assist their families in adverse situations. they also represent an important financial source that augments capital inflows and investments in economy. remittances may have a positive impact not only on the volume but also on the quality of investments. migrants and / or their relatives being more familiar with the local economic and social environment could make a better use of the capital brought into the country than foreign investors. nowadays this is not just a theoretical inference. a growing number of emigrants that fled during 90s, are returning and funds but also a lot of know - how. a survey carried out with the assistance of the international organization of migration ( iom ) in albania and cards project. the questionnaire period comprises april - june 2005. 3 / 5 however, there is always another side of the coin. remittances inflow might have negative effects as well. if the recipient country remains dependant on money transfers, it will encourage further migration of labour by reducing the effectiveness of investments of domestic and foreign investors because of the unstable workforce. what's more important, if remittances go mainly for financing imports, their impact in the development of the domestic economy drops significantly. i fear albania is one of these cases. remittances are being mainly used to secure daily family needs and to improve life style, as well as to construct or reconstruct houses, and to finance traditional family ceremonies. only a small portion goes into banks as saving deposits. in fewer cases, remittances have been invested in real estates, manufacturing or services and agricultural sectors. this distribution of remittances alleviates poverty but does not lead to new job creation via investments, which would prevent new emigration by generating local opportunities. being utilised little as resources for the economic and social development of the country, remittances may have led to individual, family or local dependency. during the first stage of transition in albania policies for optimising the administration and utilisation of workers ’ remittances for developing purposes have been completely lacking. a few sporadic measures have aimed at driving workers ’ remittances into official channels and improving savings and investments incentives of emigrants in the country but have been by and large inadequate. more recently, the albanian government has taken a more attentive approach toward remittances and their

the bank of albania has decided that - without prejudice to its legal mandate of price stability - to give its contribution in this regard. our efforts are focused on three directions, as following : first, monitoring climate risks and strengthening our analytical capacities in this area. at the moment, we have to admit that there is a huge gap in climate - related data. however, overcoming it as soon as possible would establish premises to further improve our macroeconomic models, scenario analysis and risk assessment. in turn, this helps us better calculate climate risks and the implications that the transition to a carbon - neutral economy may have. in the last years, the bank of albania has increased the knowledge on the economic and financial consequences of climate change, through the scientific researches in this regard. second, promoting green finance. to this end, we have recently approved the " strategy for the management of financial risks related to climate change, 20232025 ". the purpose of this strategy is making banks aware on the need to identify, measure and monitor the risk that comes from climate change, until the issuance of complete guidelines by the european banking authority for the 2 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches inclusion of this risk in the supervisory processes. meanwhile, in the current year we plan to draft a climate risk guideline in order to encourage banks to include climate risks in their framework on risk management. in this process, the alignment with the ecb initiatives will also be considered, taking into account the practices of other countries as well. third, strengthening collaboration with national and international partners. addressing risks of climate change and transitioning to a sustainable economy are global challenges. therefore, the share of information, expertise, as well as the recognition and implementation of best practices to handle climate change, are crucial elements for successfully addressing this challenge. we work with the albanian and international partners to increase knowledge, awareness and transparency on climate - related issues. since 2020, the bank of albania is a member of the network for a green financial ngsf ), while we have been collaborating for a long time with the world bank ( finsac ), the state secretariat for economic affairs of the swiss government ( seco ), vienna initiative, and others intuitions. we are also working to reduce our environmental impact by implementing measures to save energy. dear participants, thanking you for participating in the launching of the ebrd regular transition report, i kindly invite you to become an active part of discussions on the messages it provides and try to reflect them