The textile factory
Two years ago a textile factory opened in Durrës. The factory was equipped with modern technology for the production of high-quality fabric for both import and export. In Albania it was the only factory of its kind, after the closure of the Kombinat textile factory in Tirana.
It was built by three emigrants from Albania, with nearly twenty years of experience in Italy in the textile sector.
They had worked night and day, acquiring work experience by rolling up their sleeves and keeping their head low until they became owners of a modern factory. With their semi-manufactured goods they supplied many Italian firms.
But in response to the current Albanian government to invest in their fatherland they decided to return to Albania.
The disassembled half of their production capacity in Italy and reassembled it in Albania. The lower wages and the proximity of many confection companies would secure a profitable market for their products.
But now, after two years, they are thinking to go back to Italy. They will disassemble everything and return their machinery to Italy. Many things aren’t going well. They were making a lot of money in Italy, but here they can’t make it work.
“You can’t work in Albania,” the factory owners say.
Together with their machinery they will take the few family members who had remained in Albania, seek Italian citizenship, and throw their Albanian passports somewhere in a forgotten drawer.
With their dreams shattered and cut off from their original roots, they will no longer be emigrants, but in the end only immigrants in Italy.
“Problems with customs and problems with taxes make it impossible to continue business in Albania,” the three emigrants say.
Investment paradise?
Albania is doing its best to give the impression of being an investment paradise, but for years now we have seen companies going bankrupt in an irresponsible and cynical way, and how the attempts of Albanians and foreigners to invest in the country have failed.
The coming days Tirana is hosting a big congress for the Albanian diaspora. Most certainly the Prime Minister will try, for the umpteenth time, to fill the heads of a broad spectrum of Albanians that live and work outside the country – saying that the time has come to return to Albania – to bring to the fatherland the skills and material goods they have acquired in emigration.
Propaganda arguments such as Albania’s ranking in Doing Business will be used once more. But every time they are used they seem less credible, each time they work less well, and each time the diaspora believe them less.
Wouldn’t it be much better if the government asked itself why there are so many companies going bankrupt? What can there be done to improve the return on small investments?
And all of the above, before it’s too late.
