During her visit the Head of the Swiss Parliament Christa Markwalder met with her counter-part, Mr. Ilir Meta, Speaker of the Albanian Parliament. Ms. Markwalder stated that it is in Switzerland’s interest to see Albania and the region prosper. She highlighted Albania’s constructive role in the Western Balkans and added that the Swiss Government approved a number of projects to continue supporting Albania in the next four years. The high level visit continued with official meetings with President Bujar Nishani and Prime Minister Edi Rama.

Prior to these official meetings Ms. Markwalder visited the Swiss-funded project RisiAlbania which assists the business outsourcing sector with linkages to international markets, promo-tion and new value-added services. She learned about youth employment opportunities in this prospering sector.

Ms. Markwalder gave also a lecture for students and alumni from the Academy of Political Studies – a school established by the Council of Europe and partly funded by Switzerland. “In the current volatile and unpredictable times we need political leadership – one that provides solutions and does not become opportunistic and populistic”, said Ms. Markwalder to the students who are also members or activists of political parties and civil society.

Ms. Markwalder paid finally a visit to Durrës where she met Mayor Vangjush Dako. Her visit took place after an invitation of the Albanian Speaker of Parliament Meta in the framework of bilateral relations between parliaments of both countries. She was accompanied by Swiss Ambassador in Tirana Christoph Graf.