Speaks Mr. Arben Shkodra, Secretary General of the Albanian Manufacturers Union for Monitor magazine.
Before I present our concerns as the Union of Producers, I want to make a parenthesis: The Albanian economy “cannot escape” digitization, as it is a process that will happen very quickly even in the European Union, in 2021, where it will begin to implement 5G technology, which is 10 times faster than the current system.
The Internet will again be the vector, but for us the way of doing business will change, the approach to other intermediary actors such as: banks, insurance companies, service providers, etc. will change. There will also be new developments in the way of managing a business and the way of solving problems.
This digital revolution, which in economic language is called the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” or “Industry 4.0”, will irreversibly change the physiognomy of the world economy and, as a consequence, of the Albanian economy as well.
To return to your question, regarding the Government’s recent initiative to digitize the fiscal system, the approach at this moment presents several risks, which have turned into concerns for entrepreneurship. This process consists mostly of three actors:
The first actor is the government (the state), which has the task: first – to design the innovation strategy and create a digital agenda, secondly – to invest public funds in the construction of a serious infrastructure that enables the implementation of this strategy and digital agenda and, thirdly – to educate and train the public administration to approach this challenging process in the best possible way and with dignity.
Several questions immediately come to mind: Do we have a national index today in terms of the level of introduction the information technology? How much is the planned budget for each spending unit in the Albanian state for digitization and innovation? What is the positioning in the global index for innovation? Is the current public and private infrastructure harmonized? What are the current capacities of this infrastructure? At what level is the internet coverage nationwide and what is the quality of this product in Albania? What is the level of knowledge of our public administration regarding this process?
The second are intermediary actors, which include telecommunication companies, IT and service providers that will be integrated in this process, second level banks, etc. In this case, we do not have a clear picture if these actors are prepared for such process and if they are ready, with all the necessary infrastructure, to face the implementation phase. In our knowledge, in order to guarantee a perfect operation of the process, these actors must make a series of quite small investments, taking into consideration that the initial expenditure for the Albanian government for the construction of a platform was about 15 million euros.
The third actor is the Albanian enterprise which, firstly, was not consulted by the company that built the platform. As we know, the physiognomy of our economy and the profiles of enterprises present their own problems, based on the sectors where they operate. Access to the national economy of an enterprise whose basic activity is collection, recycling and production is not the same as an enterprise that imports and trades, or an enterprise that offers tourism or construction services. Taking into account this element, we should be taken not only in the design of a strategy or legislation but, above all, of software platforms which then automatically perform not only monitoring, but also the provision of online services. Also, we did not have enough time for consultation, since in August, not only the company but also the consulting experts who should work, were on vacation.
Some of the first concerns as a manufacturing enterprise:
We are moving towards the digitization of processes that were previously done physically, but we do not have concrete examples, e.g. how the billing will work from the warehouse of an enterprise to the final consumer, taking into account all the links of the process and the problems of the market.
How electronic invoicing will work in the case of import and export. How the corrections and cancellations procedure will work. A rather big problem appears in the determination of the daily balance of the treasury, since the values proposed in the draft law do not correspond to some specific sectors or enterprises.
How will a transaction work in areas where there is clearly and continuously no internet coverage.
Our proposals:
Information and communication should start immediately with the enterprise according to specific sectors, by organizing workshops This would bring an additional information not only to the builders of the platform but also to the drafters of the draft law, in order to make the necessary corrections.
The implementation of this system on a national scale should be postponed until 2021, making a pilot project only for Tirana, which is about 1/3 of the enterprise, where the infrastructure does not present many problems and the quality of the Internet is satisfactory. During this testing year, fines should not be applied, but problems should be identified and solutions should be provided.
The extra costs the business will face
- changing the POS system;
- setting up new programs;
- system maintenance;
- 40 euros for the digital signature;
- staff training costs.
