albanian tourism, of this important sector that presently contributes by 9 % to the country ’ s gross domestic product. currently the figure of 1 million tourists a year has become a reality and its perspective goes even beyond, if we continue to pay necessary economic, social and institutional attention to tourism. beyond such impressive figures, the tourism development is translated also into a constant improvement of albania ’ s image as a country under progress, of values it possesses and provides, of increased level of employment and revenues for many areas and strata of population, as provision of values of many environmental, historical and cultural, geographic and curative, economic and social potentials, etc. notwithstanding this optimistic situation, we should not forget that albania is a mediterranean country, found in one of the most developed tourism areas of the world, in one of the areas of the largest variety of types of tourism, and therefore in one of the areas where competition in tourism service is in its peak, where many of the countries of the region, with a very long tradition in this sector, have turned it into a real tourism industry. our objectives to improve rapidly and to solve qualitatively the problems of road infrastructure, water and electricity supply, sewerages, etc., should be attached to improved quality of services and implementation of standards, completion of regulatory and urban plans for all tourism areas, variety of types of tourism and tourism products. besides the coastline tourism, which is dominant, the mountainous and rural tourism, cultural and historical tourism, archaeological and nature tourism, curative and sports tourism, massive and elite tourism should be also developed. all these are going to make the sector and the activity directly or indirectly related to tourism absorb more investments and loans, making banks, domestic and foreign businesses, private and institutional investors, etc., more interested and guaranteed for success. you should be convinced that the banking business is observing you attentively, expecting a signal, a sparkle which is mostly at your hand. the standards are indispensable and should be respected. therefore, i would invite the local government, the business community, the individuals of saranda to be oriented towards the future, towards tourism and urban development models, similar to those of advanced countries. let me conclude by thanking you once more for your hospitality.

see, for example, bongard et al. ( 2016 ), “ connecting the dots : market reactions to forecasts of policy rates and forward guidance provided by the fed ”, dnb working papers, no 523 ; and brubakk, l., s. ter ellen and h. xu ( 2017 ), “ forward guidance through interest rate projections : does it work? ”, norges bank working papers, no 62017. 17 the case of the riksbank in 2011 is probably the most prominent example in this respect. see svensson, l. e. o ( 2014 ), “ forward guidance ”, nber working papers, no 20796. 18 see, for example, walsh, c. e. ( 2007 ), “ optimal economic transparency ”, international journal of central banking 3 ( 1 ), 5 – 36. 19 see blinder, a. s. ( 2004 ), the quiet revolution in central banking goes modern, yale university press. 20 for the difficulties of committees in agreeing on a path of future interest rates, see also blinder, a., c. goodhart, p. hildebrand, d. lipton and c. wyplosz ( 2003 ), “ how do central banks talk? ”, geneva reports on the world economy, no 3. 21 see, for example, olson, p. and d. wessel ( 2016 ), improving the fed ’ s dots, the brookings institution. 22 see cœure, b. ( 2016 ), “ the ecb ’ s operational framework in post - crisis times ”, speech at the federal reserve bank of kansas city ’ s 40th economic policy symposium, jackson hole, 27 august. 23 see fiorentini, g., a. galesi, g. perez - quiros and e. sentana ( 2018 ), “ the rise and fall of the natural interest rate ”, banco de espana working papers, no 1822. 24 see fries et al. ( 2017 ), “ national natural rates of interest and the single monetary policy in the euro area ”, banque de france working papers, no 611. 25 see moessner et al. ( 2017, op. cit. ). 26 see, for example, nimark, k. p. ( 2014 ), “ man - bites - dog business cycles ”, american economic review 104 ( 8 ) : 2320 – 2367 ; and woodford,