. the fiscal policy pursued during the entire year 2008 has observed the targets set in the medium - term budget programme for 2008 - 2010 ; consequently, it has not yielded any repressions in economy and performance of prices. the albanian banking system continues to operate under optimal parameters, in line with the standards of prudent banking supervision. the latest data indicate that the domino effect induced by the developments in the international financial market has been handled with satisfactorily. in addition, the bank of albania has supplied and continues to supply the interbank market with the required amount of liquidity. as i have mentioned in my previous statements : there ’ s no such thing as a free lunch! meaning that emphasis should be put on the far - sighted perspective characterizing the bank of albania in the recent years. i do not refer here only to price stability, but also to the greatest challenge : banking system stability. the supervisory council of the bank of albania has constantly amended the regulatory basis creating incentives for more qualitative lending, while other decisions have aimed at providing more banking system transparency to the public, more efficient internal control and better management and governing structures. regardless of what has been stated above, the future is of prime importance. for many reasons that i have also mentioned in my previous statements, end - year 2008 and almost the entire year 2009 will in a global context be hard, full of challenges and we will be walking through unknown paths. overcoming this economic crisis requires time. its solution will materialize through the resetting of a number of internal and external economic balances, the re - arrangement of many supervisory institutions and the re - design of the regulatory framework on many financial market segments. put in this general setting, the idea that our small economy would resist this global economic tsunami with no consequences at all sounds as unrealistic. however, this issue is even more intricate. detecting the risks we may plausibly be faced with is not enough. i think our top priority is the design and implementation of preventive and remedial measures, which would reduce the materialization level of these risks. when i say “ our ”, i mean the state with its entirety of institutions and mechanisms. our main challenge – involving the central bank, the banking system, the government, other decision - making and executive authorities, business community and the public in general – is to maintain the aggregate demand, the production potentials and the financial resources in economy at unchanged levels. these are our top national priorities

to remain so in the future as well. in my recent communications with my counterparts and in the various meetings with senior officials of foreign banks ’ main headquarters i have truthfully presented our country ’ s economic situation and i have required from them to keep their interest in the albanian economy unchanged. i avail myself of this opportunity to address to the albanian entrepreneurship. you have to keep being active and focused on formulating and implementing your future business plans. this would be the only way for you to remain well - capitalized, lucrative and credible to the banking system. in the current economic conditions, private entrepreneurship should be a supporter and promoter in the formulation of domestic strategies at home, in the region and broader, and in their implementation process. all conditions are in place for the albanian business to go beyond the official regional borders, hence, becoming a factor in ensuring a stable regional activity. this also means a real integration into the targeted standards. concluding, i would like to highlight that the small countries like albania, should be optimistic, flexible and adaptive to challenges. only in this way, they may find themselves able to sail into the international waters. thank you.