Albania:
World Bank offers help

Albania's payoff for its help in bringing Yugoslavia under NATO control 
was made clear in talks between the President of the World Bank, James 
Wolfensohn, and Albanian President Rexhep Meidani on July 19 in Tirane.

According to the World Bank's Press Office, Wolfensohn stressed that 
Albania must continue to have the "very positive image" that it created in 
the international community during the crisis in the region, "so that all 
possibilities for a recovery of the Albanian economy can be exploited".

That "very positive image" was created through manipulation of the 
international media by the White House, the State Department and the CIA. 
The "crisis in the region" was NATO's savage bombing of Yugoslavia.

While Meidani and Wolfensohn solemnly mouthed platitudes about "the need to 
coordinate efforts to eliminate corruption and increase efficiency in the 
sectors of justice, public order and customs houses", the World Bank 
supremo insisted on Tirane stepping up its privatisation of state 
enterprises and public utilities ("continue its decentralising policies, 
especially in the area of local government").

In return, Wolfensohn promised World Bank help in planning the development 
of Albania and determining "priorities" for the attraction of international 
finance.

For his part, Meidani, who is keen for Albania to be integrated at the 
earliest opportunity into the European Union, said his government must 
study the creation of free trade zones (to attract foreign investment), the 
creation of a customs union in the region and a full and joint market, 
which Europe "must penetrate as soon as possible".