Albanian parliament approves new female-dominated government
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TIRANA, Albania (AP) – The Albanian Assembly or Parliament on Friday approved a female-dominated Cabinet aimed at bringing the country back to economic growth by focusing on tourism and agriculture, infrastructure and energy .
After an 8-hour debate, the 140-seat parliament voted 77-53 for Prime Minister Edi Rama’s new cabinet and program.
The Left Socialist Party won a record third consecutive term in parliamentary elections on April 25, with 74 seats. The main center-right Democratic opposition party won 59 seats.
Rama, 57, boasted in his speech that “this new government will go down in history as a Cabinet with the most women” – 12 out of 17 members, propelling Albania to the top of the world rankings in terms of percentage of women in ministerial positions.
The main challenges for the government will be to complete the reconstruction process after the earthquake of November 2019 and to cope with the pandemic and its impact on the economy, as well as to fight against corruption and drug trafficking, to increase growth to at least 4% per year, increase wages and reduce unemployment. .
Rama wants to make Albania by 2030 “an absolute champion of tourism in the Balkans”.
Albania, with a population of 2.8 million, has been a member of NATO since 2009 and hopes to launch full membership negotiations with the European Union later this year.
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