Coming to Albania has been a wonderful discovery

This article is a brief account of my very first impressions about the country that is now my new home. It will be continued by a monthly series through which I would like to discuss with the broader Albania public specific priorities facing the country and how the World Bank helps address them.
Coming to Albania has been a wonderful discovery. A beautiful Balkan country with a fascinating history and rich cultural heritage remains a mystery for many people outside the immediate neighborhood. Indeed, the pace of economic and social transformation over the past two decades has been so dramatic that global perceptions lag behind. A journey from a very poor country in early 1990s to an upper middle income economy, the status Albania gained this summer, is remarkable by any comparison.  As the world is absorbed by emergence of powerful BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China), Albania’s economic growth has been, on average, stronger than in those countries except China. It is considered a success story by the International Development Association (IDA), an arm of the World Bank that provides highly concessional finance to the poorest countries, from which Albania graduated in 2008. I happened to work - at different points of time - in all BRIC countries, and this experience allowed me to better appreciate Albania’s achievements.  The issuance of the first Eurobond last month confirms the country’s move to a different league
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No less remarkable - and probably unprecedented – is a journey from one of the most isolated countries on earth to a soon-to-be visa free travel in Europe and a path towards EU accession. Another notable success, albeit not well known internationally, is arresting violent crime and ensuring public order. The streets of Tirana are safer than those in Moscow (my home city) and Washington DC (where I worked and lived in the past 18 years); yet, my friends from both cities responded to my invitation to visit me here by raising concerns about their safety!  Telling the story of Albania’s transformation to the world – and thus both helping this country to improve the international image and enabling less advanced developing countries to learn from its experience - is one of the areas where I would like to see the World Bank doing more.

News source: The Worldbank link: article