ardian fullani : educating and inspiring albania ’ s young generation speech by mr ardian fullani, governor of the bank of albania, at the 2011 end - year reception, tirana, 21 december 2011. * * * honourable minister, your excellencies ambassadors, honourable members of parliament, dear representatives of the banking system and the media, dear participants, i would like to welcome and thank you for your participation. your presence today is a special pleasure for me personally and the bank of albania. my special thanks go to the former members of the supervisory council of the bank of albania, whose term in office has ended. i personally appreciate the seriousness and commitment they have dedicated to their work, a precious contribution to bank of albania ’ s institutional furtherance. thanking them once again for their professional work, allow me to welcome the newly appointed members of the supervisory council of the bank of albania, renowned public figures with an unquestionable professional career. they come from diverse fields of professional careers and will bring in added value to the bank of albania, contributing to a wider coverage of the institution ’ s functions. i am confident that the bank of albania, in its activity, will continue to incorporate best international standards as regards decision - making, independence, accountability, transparency and governance. i believe that a healthy economy that generates stable growth needs a developed financial sector in terms of its depth and width ; a flexible banking system, which manages public ’ s deposits cautiously and channels them efficiently to fund the economy. today, from this modest ceremony, i would like to assure you that we are fully responsible for this as useful as difficult mission. the bank of albania will be always attentive to ensure macroeconomic and financial stability for the country. in the spirit of end - year celebrations, i cannot help focusing on the albanian young generation, an inspiration to our work and a fruit of our investments for a better future. following its established tradition, the bank of albania has the pleasure to announce the governor ’ s award for the best diploma theses in 2011 ”. this year, we decided to announce this award in this important activity, in the presence of friends and colleagues. this is an expression of our appreciation for research by these today ’ s students – tomorrow ’ s colleagues. the bank of albania pays particular attention to the young generation, especially to its education. when i look back and see how we started financial education five years ago, i recall what may be a naive but a significant comparison ; neil

action for achieving a series of concrete and measurable objectives. this means that upon conclusion of the project, having benefited from the technical assistance, the bank of albania will be able to discharge its institutional duties and responsibilities in the relevant fields more effectively and more efficiently. i believe the main factor of success for such technical cooperation programmes is closely related to having clear goals and objectives, set jointly with our european partners. twinning agreements are an important instrument for ensuring albania ’ s compliance with eu legislation. this agreement is reached in a convenient time, taking into account that only two bis central bankers ’ speeches months from now, a decision will be made by the council of the european union on the candidate status with regard to albania ’ s eu membership. the ultimate objective of this cooperation will go beyond the assistance ; it will contribute to achieving high levels of professionalism, independence and transparency. it will also contribute to promoting the monetary and financial stability in albania. moreover, the assistance will be an impetus to the country ’ s european integration, with special focus on compliance with criteria for legal and economic convergence with the european union. this underlines, once again, the role of european integration as a driver to economic and social modernisation in our countries. today ’ s agreement comes at a moment when the commitment of the european central bank to our region is focused not only on the field of technical cooperation, but also extends to the political one. in addition to the close monitoring of the economy of albania and other countries in our region, the european central bank plays an active role in the vienna initiative 2. 0, which aims at identifying and mitigating systemic risks in the countries where european banks operate. this initiative is experimenting a new coordinating mechanism between the european union and our region, bringing together representatives from parent banks, subsidiaries, home and host supervisory authorities, international financial institutions and the european commission. moreover, the european central bank is assuming a new supervisory role for 130 systemic banks in the euro area, some of which operate in albania or other countries of the region through their branches or subsidiaries. this role, which is expected to become functional in the field as of november this year, will be exercised in cooperation with national supervisory authorities and will have implications for albania and other countries of the region, given the presence of euro area - based banks in our banking sectors. with the establishment of the single supervisory mechanism, the european central bank will become the home supervisor for a number of banks operating in albania. in addition to improving the