PROTECTING AMERICAN AND ALBANIAN INVESTORS – AMERICAN INVESTMENT IS ECONOMIC STRENGTH AND NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE
By Flamur Buçpapaj
Albania must protect American investors while, at the same time, protecting Albanian investors by guaranteeing equal conditions, legal certainty, and fair competition for everyone. Every American investment in Albania is not merely economic capital entering the country; it also strengthens Albania’s strategic relationship with the United States of America and provides a greater guarantee for our country’s development and economic independence.
I say this based on my own personal experience. My company, TPLANI shpk, has participated several times in tenders organized by the U.S. Embassy in Albania and, over the years, has won several of them. Throughout this cooperation, the embassy’s representatives have acted with professionalism, integrity, and complete transparency. At no time was a bribe, favoritism, or any illegal percentage ever requested. This is the model Albania should follow: a state where rules are respected, where everyone is equal before the law, and where the best competitor prevails.
Unfortunately, in some cases, artificial obstacles are being created against foreign investments, including American companies. Even more concerning is the situation in which Albanian investors who support the country’s Western and pro-American orientation are being hindered. This is a mistaken approach because Albania cannot build its future by driving capital away, but rather by attracting and protecting it.
It is a privilege for Albania that American companies are investing along the coast and throughout the country. For this reason, we must welcome them, support them, and create the best possible working conditions for their activities. Investments should not be obstructed by pressure, blockades, or protests that, in many cases, go beyond the democratic right to demonstrate and turn into direct attacks against businesses and private property.
Every investor, Albanian or foreign, who respects the law and invests in Albania should be welcomed and supported. Investors create jobs, generate income for Albanian families, pay taxes, and contribute to the country’s economic development. Only the prosecution authorities and the courts have the right to intervene when there is evidence or suspicion of corruption, theft, fraud, or violations of the law. No one else can assume the role of the state and decide which investments should continue and which should not.
Once the state has granted the necessary permits, approved all legal procedures, and the investor has legally purchased or leased the land, that investment must be protected. This is a constitutional obligation of the state and a fundamental guarantee of a functioning market economy.
One of the greatest problems emerging today is the confusion between democracy and attacks against private property. The right to protest is a constitutional right, but it cannot be used to block or destroy the activities of a lawful business. When protests become instruments of economic pressure, obstruction of investments, or intimidation of entrepreneurs, they lose their democratic character and risk turning into a form of organized extortion.
The consequences of this approach are severe. Investors lose confidence, projects are delayed or canceled, jobs are reduced, and the national economy is damaged. Albania loses important development opportunities while its international image suffers. No serious investor will invest in a country where legal certainty is questioned every day.
Yesterday’s message by U.S. Ambassador Van Horn regarding the strengthening of the rule of law, transparency, and support for serious investments should serve as a guiding principle for Albanian institutions. Albania cannot develop by fighting investors. Albania develops by protecting the rule of law, private property, and fair competition.
It does not matter whether the investor is called X shpk or any other company. The principle is universal: no individual, interest group, or economic rival has the right to destroy an investment that has been built in accordance with the law and authorized by the state.
Protecting investors is not about protecting a single business. It is about protecting the national economy, jobs, social stability, and Albania’s future. Private property is sacred, and the state has a constitutional duty to protect it. Without legal certainty there can be no investment; without investment there can be no development; and without development there can be no prosperity.
Flamur Buçpapaj
