Edi Rama, in open discussions with farmers, says that they have shown the importance of such meetings, as problems ranging from major issues to those that should not be a problem, but are actually hindering development, have been identified.
One of the key issues Rama highlighted was the legalization of rural production structures, which, according to him, is hindering access to credit, EU funds and support instruments for entrepreneurship. He asked the cadastre and municipalities to intervene immediately to accelerate the legalization process and not let farmers wait any longer.
Rama also warned of the need for a new institutional approach, where ministries, local governments and the government itself are more proactive in cooperating with farmers. He mentioned the restructuring of the role of local governments and their full engagement in rural development processes.
Edi Rama: "The way these roundtable discussions were conducted confirms the usefulness of such a meeting. In the meantime, it gave us the opportunity to see and hear that the issue of the development of agriculture and livestock and economic activity in the countryside goes from big things to things that should not be a problem but are a big problem. I have in mind the issue of legalizing production structures, which is a problem for some. It has serious implications, it makes it impossible to access loans, to support funds, whether from European financing, access to all those instruments that make it difficult to keep entrepreneurship afloat.
I believe that even if we have a discussion, we will come up with a decision to ask the cadastre in cooperation, or to ask the municipalities to immediately legalize the rural production structures of the country. We must immediately take it upon ourselves and forward the legalization documentation to the cadastre within August. Farmers should not wait to legalize production structures. From this to more general things, there are many things that I say that we can come up with a new approach. I must emphasize that it is necessary to change the government, the ministry, local government, ministries. To be proactive in this process.
"They should encourage, open the way for cooperation, restructure it in a way that encourages and burdens local government. Another clear element is that we need to unify VAT, something that the Minister of Finance has already prepared. Financing according to production units, we have said it often, we have repeated it but we have not done it, now we must do it. We must engage the tax structures to carry out a preliminary awareness process, before they enter with the seizure of uninvoiced milk. Uninvoiced products cannot be allowed to be sold. They can be dangerous, they bring catastrophic consequences for people's health. The ministry and the tax structure must carry this out diligently."
(BalkanWeb)
