The newly appointed Minister of Agriculture Niko Peleshi, who in the Government Rama 1 held the post of Deputy Prime Minister, explained yesterday evening the administrative and institutional reform that will take place during the second term.
During the interview with journalist Ilir Babaramo, Mr. Peleshi also spoke about the initiatives he plans to undertake in the Ministry of Agriculture.
Some of the main statements of Niko Peleshi were:
Regarding the Institutional Reform:
– The principle in which we believe is that through optimization we can do more and better for less.
– The new structure [of state institutions] aims at modernizing the administration. but this does not mean cutting the number of employees. The quality of the administration will be radically changed.
– Our administration is small and poorly structured. Out of the 140 agencies we have proposed to go to 104, 30% shrinking in number rather than administration, not to raise fear among workers about possible layoffs.
– People complain about services and they do not care about the political affiliations of the employers. The coalition has worsened the situation with regard to the quality of services.
– All institutions that have 10 employees will merge, employees will not leave.
– We do not have a clear division between the inspection, management functions, we often have a mix.
– We will create a clear difference between control and inspection. The inspection institution is in crying need for help.
– Everyone here inspects everything. We have no clear set standards, Albania is not part of the Standards Organization.
For the Ministry of Agriculture:
– Food safety will be a priority since the first day of work. We need to increase food security.
– One of the first measures I will propose to the prime minister in order to turn it into reform is to control the slaughter.
– Albanian agriculture is afraid to grow no matter the support we give, as the[the seller] gets exhausted trying to sell the products and no matter how much support we give, they are afraid to grow. We have to guarantee the sale of the products.
– We will be very close to the farmers by also introducing the local municipalities into the structure by building a collection point so farmers are not afraid to increase production and have a point of reference.
– We will be very aggressive in politics, to make this sector interesting for entrepreneurs in order revitalize Albanian agriculture.
– The biggest problem is the size of the farm in Albania. Even the idea of co-operatives, is not embraced easily because of the connotation of the past. We are working on the concept of contracted farms that guarantee the sale of the product with an entrepreneur that can also provide the inputs.
– The sector is very challenging and very difficult, but it has the EU and Rama support. We will try to work for a more developed agriculture and safe foods.
