Rich by nature, poor by politics

2024-05-26 09:05:00, Aktualitet CNA

"If a table were to be made to rank countries in relation to the natural resources they have, Russia would certainly be at the top of it.

It has everything: oil, gas, diamonds, platinum, gold, silver, all the metals used in industry, hardwood and an extremely rich soil.

But countries are not considered rich, relative to their natural resources. Wealthy are those countries whose governments have policies that encourage creativity, initiative, entrepreneurship in people and value the desire to achieve more for their families."

This is a part of the speech of the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, given in 1975. Although decades have passed since then, her words remain very current, especially for Albania.

Our country is a typical case of how the many natural resources, in relation to the population and surface area, have not helped to improve the well-being of its population, which even today continues to remain among the poorest in Europe.

We have the largest oil-bearing field on earth in Patos-Marinze, but still after almost two decades, the company that uses it with a concession does not pay taxes.

The numerous sources of chrome, for the most part, have become the cause of conflicts due to the informality of exploitation, or the source of accidents as a result of poor safety measures.

We have abundant water, sun, but we still import an average of 20-50% of the energy we need per year, because we do not manage to diversify the resources.

The data today is stubborn:

- The economy has not produced welfare. Albania remains with the lowest income and purchasing power in Europe, according to Eurostat. Per capita income in relation to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was 34% of the European Union average.

This indicator is the lowest in Europe (data for Kosovo are not reported). The difference is visible with Montenegro, with 50% of the EU average, or Serbia (44%).

The other indicator, that of individual consumption per capita, which measures income according to purchasing power, or the well-being of a family, places Albania at the bottom, with 41%, from 63% in Montenegro and 53% in Serbia.

- With all these assets, Albanians do not manage to meet even the minimum needs to live. The World Food Organization (FAO) recently announced that a person living in Albania needs to spend 4.4 USD per day (according to the purchasing power index) on food alone, to meet the needs of a normal diet.

This cost is the highest in Europe and in the region. In fact, in the global ranking of 163 countries, Albania ranks 28th for the high costs of the daily food diet.

A family that spends over 40% of the budget on food, from the 13% that is the average of the European Union, means that it has little income available and spends it first on food and other essential services, with little left over. to enjoy life.

The list is endless, with Albania almost always at the bottom of the ranking, from the use of the budget for social protection, for education, health, minimum wage, average wage to indicators such as the happiness index, which measures the quality of lifestyle, or the perception of corruption.

It is not the variety of natural resources that makes a country rich, but the quality of policy making. And the figures clearly show that the country is not being managed with development policies aimed at increasing the well-being of the population, but is hostage to an unstudied development, often for the interests of a minority.

The only stable product of government policies over the years is the high emigration of Albanians, comparable to countries that have been in violent conflict for at least a decade, ruining the country's human wealth./ Monitor Magazine