ardian fullani : brief presentation on accounting developments in albania greeting address by mr ardian fullani, governor of the bank of albania, at the first congress of accountants and financiers, tirana, 10 january 2005. * * * dear friends and colleges, greetings to you all! honestly i feel well being invited to take part in the first event of such magnitude of albanian accountants. moreover, i feel well being among lots of my colleges and friends, noticing also many newcomers among you. along the past years, we have frequently had the chance to debate about issues on accounting evidences. along the planned economy collapse at end of 80 ’ s and along two or three first years of the subsequent decade, besides other things, created a kind of stagnation even in terms of financial accounting. the large economic transformation, rapid emergence of private enterprises, new concept of asset management and public enterprises, yet - unconsolidated state, lack of international experiences and numerous other causes created a confusion, which, i think, in spite of the years passing by, continues to accompany us even nowadays. from my present position, i feel well to emphasize that banking business was among the first one to invest and was rapidly updated to international practices of this direction. therefore, the accounting balance sheets and financial statements of these institutions are almost unified in advanced international patterns, making their accountability, transparency and reliability gain contemporary magnitude. on the other hand, various decision - making circles, groups of economic opinion, national or international monitoring institutions have the idea that current accounting evidence in various segments of economy leaves much to be desired. furthermore, frequently it serves as a leverage to materialize the endeavors for fiscal evasion, why not even for other illegal activities. i understand that, above all, we have to do with an ethical professional problem, an intentional deformation which creates the premises to keep alive and increase informal economy endlessly. i think that today ’ s initiative is a positive development of major size, which above all will serve for a better evaluation of the accountant ’ s figure. we should all accept now, without exception that for a higher responsibility and ethics of accounting expert, investment is needed. it is true that more support is needed to accounting expert and also more investments are needed in terms of training and qualification. more attention should be shown to introduction of new up - dated literature on accounting and financial analysis techniques in general. i am convinced that investment in knowledge on accounting experts will bring about a fast and

##ible assets : database for spain and its autonomous communities ( 1995 - 2014 ). april 2017. database available at : http : / / informecotec. es / activos - intangibles /. brown, j. r., fazzari, s. m. and b. c. petersen ( 2009 ) : “ financing innovation and growth : cash flow, external equity, and the 1990x r & d boom ”, the journal of finance, vol. lxiv, no. 1 4 / 6 bank group also supports innovation through different instruments such as guarantees, sme loan securitisation and venture capital. the public sector can also play a relevant role in supporting innovation through the education system since a key element of innovation is the supply of high - skilled workers. an improvement of the quality and functioning of the education system can therefore have a positive contribution to innovation. spain ’ s global position in terms of innovation and digitalisation now let me give you some figures on spain ’ s relative position in terms of innovation and digitalisation. according to eurostat10, r & d expenditure as a percentage of gdp stood at 2 % in the eu in 2017, below the target of 3 % of gdp set at “ europe 2020 strategy ” and also below us levels ( 2. 8 % ). spain ’ s investment in r & d was lower than the eu average. it only accounted for 1. 2 % of its gdp in 2017 despite having been growing for the previous three years. according to cotec11, spanish companies fund the majority of their investment in r & d, around two thirds, with internally generated resources. regarding external funding sources, venture capital and private equity are the most relevant ones. another key element for innovation is the supply of human capital, i. e., the availability of high - skilled workers such as researchers. in this dimension, there is also an important gap between spain and the eu average. in particular, according to eurostat12, in 2017 spain had 0. 27 researchers per 100 employees in the private sector, while the eu average was 0. 45. regarding digitalisation, spain is gradually improving its global position. according to the digital economy and society index, published by the european commission13, that tracks the evolution of eu member states in digital competitiveness, spain ranks 11th among the 28 countries of the european union. the index comprises five indicators : connectivity, human capital, use of internet services, integration of digital