The Minister of Finance and Economy Delina Ibrahimaj, together with the Swiss Ambassador Ruth Huber, signed the agreement for the implementation of the third phase of the RisiAlbania project - for a functional job market for young people.

Minister Ibrahimaj emphasized that the focus of our policies are projects and programs that aim to increase employment, either those with direct financing, or those that aim to promote knowledge processes, especially digitalization.

"The budget policies we are undertaking also aim to promote sectors such as tourism, agriculture through the development of value chains in medicinal plants, fruits and vegetables, which enable businesses to access high-value markets, increase local income and to create more employment opportunities for young people", said the Minister.

"It is of utmost importance to equip young women and men with proper career advice and with market-relevant skills. It is equally important to enable businesses to offer better and more inclusive jobs. That is the objective of the project agreement we sign today", said Swiss Ambassador Ruth Huber.

The agreement formalizes and facilitates the cooperation between several institutions and authorities in Albania, where the Ministry of Finance and Economy plays a central role, to improve young people's career counselling and information, increase the skills required by the market, as well as support businesses to be more competitive and sustainable. The project is in the third and final phase and the grant from the Swiss government is 6.9 million Euro.

The project is oriented towards innovation and works in the fields of agribusiness, information technology and tourism. In the two previous phases, new and valuable practices have been introduced, which we aim to extend further, while consolidating a more favourable environment for the employment of young people. The contribution of the previous phases includes: enabling employment for around 12,000 young women and men, improving access to employment information for around 110,000 young women/men, and improving skills and training for 9,750 young women/men.  

A special focus of the project will be the field of quality standards, where the private sector will be supported with compliance to international and EU standards.