A clear decision, swift action — Interview with Comrade BUJAR KOLANECI, Chairman of the State Planning Commission, given to our editor — — Comrade Bujar, all our workers now have in their hands an important decision concerning their well-being. What does this measure represent? — The Council of Ministers’ decision “On increasing low wages” is one of the most important measures taken to date in the field of wages. Around 642,000 workers will benefit from an additional 430 million lek in the wage fund. If we add to this the wages arising from the decision on pay according to the category of the process or workplace, and the decree guaranteeing 80 percent of wages when work is interrupted through no fault of the worker, the benefit amounts to around 500 million lek. The number of workers benefiting increases by several tens of thousands more. From its scale alone, it is clear that this is not a simple adjustment to the wage tables, but a major political, economic and social initiative. It is another measure in the Party’s and state’s economic policy to improve the well-being of our working masses, connected with the uninterrupted process of democratizing economic life. That is why it is important to understand and interpret its content correctly. Workers will receive a wage increase on condition that they complete the calendar workdays and meet their work quotas. Those who exceed them will receive more. This is an increase in nominal wages, but let us not forget that, in our country, social consumption also makes up a share of workers’ income and contributes to increasing their real income. — A great deal of work had to be done in a short time to complete the study and issue the decision. What do you think about the issues involved in implementing it? — The first pay packets with the new wages will be issued from October 1. So the preparation period for implementing the decision is short. The task is to take the most effective measures in ministries, in the executive bodies of power in the districts, and in enterprises, so that everything is made known to every worker. The decision is clear. We can say that work on distributing the relevant instructions began yesterday. The most important thing, I believe, is to calculate accurately all the effects that will follow. This new addition to the wage fund will have a significant impact on the people’s purchasing power and will increase demand on the market. The solution in this case is to meet planned targets fully and on schedule, giving priority to those branches connected with supplying the people with consumer goods and services. Meanwhile, it will also affect other economic and financial indicators: costs, wholesale prices, profitability, and so on. This makes coordination necessary in the draft plan for 1991, which we are now preparing. The aim is to find ways and set measures to increase labor productivity, reduce expenses, and use the wage fund effectively.

— Interview with the Minister of Finance ANDREA NAKO — - Interview with the Minister of Finance ANDREA NAKO - The Council of Ministers’ decision to increase low wages is one of the very important measures being taken to implement the tasks set by the 11th Plenum of the Party’s Central Committee. At the same time, meeting the substantial purchasing power that will be created places responsibilities on state and economic bodies to address it. It is well known that the main factor in meeting purchasing power and absorbing money from circulation is faster growth in the production of consumer goods. It is the responsibility of manufacturing enterprises to respond better than before to buyers’ demands in terms of both quantity and variety. More than ever, technological waste should be put to use, while increasing the range of consumer goods, industrial products and foodstuffs. Both light industry and the food industry, as well as the considerable technical and scientific potential we possess, must be mobilized more fully to bring to market products that are still unavailable. All sectors of our economy have opportunities and reserves which, by raising their expectations of themselves and reorganizing and restructuring municipal and transport services, can serve people better while also absorbing monetary value. As the 11th Plenum set out, municipal services and handicrafts have a duty to increase the range and quality of services. To meet more effectively than before the purchasing power being created in the countryside, the supply of building materials to the people must be further increased, since there have been shortages in this area. We must attach great importance to increasing agricultural and livestock production, to bringing it to market earlier and expanding its variety, and to preventing damage to and mishandling of produce. The trade authorities, too, have major responsibilities: improving the distribution and redistribution of goods, organizing fairs, and improving service overall, particularly in social catering. The opening of consumer-goods shops by foreign-trade enterprises, in cooperation with foreign firms, will have a positive impact. Measures in the field of increasing low wages continue and give concrete form to the tasks of the recent plenums of the Party’s Central Committee, and have profound political, economic and social significance. But they are also measures of a directly economic nature and, as such, require economic solutions through increased production, higher productivity, savings in expenditure, and a continued expansion of sources of accumulation; otherwise, the way is opened to undesirable phenomena such as inflation, and so on. In this context, our financial bodies also have greater duties and responsibilities: to monitor these phenomena more closely, increase assistance and oversight, and improve the effectiveness of the economy.

A lesson hour must not be disrupted. You often hear this view from dedicated teachers, who will not justify the loss of a lesson hour for any subjective reason. Learning presupposes order and exemplary discipline—not only from children and young people, but also from their educators. In Shkodër, many have indeed made a very good start, as, for example, the “29 Nëntori” general secondary school. Not a single absence among either pupils or teachers. In recent days they also inaugurated the new mathematics room and the foreign-language laboratory. We could make similar assessments of quite a few other schools, but… At the agricultural secondary schools, teachers and school administrators are still dealing with tasks that should have been completed in the last ten days of August. In other words, for some of them September 1 has still not arrived. Enrolment is still under way at some schools! These are “deficits” of a mindset that leaves today’s work until tomorrow. Dozens and dozens of pupils are absent from school. The people’s councils are asking the schools for enrolment lists, while teachers wait… Meanwhile, the plan is not being fulfilled and lessons are not being conducted as they should. And how could it be otherwise, when every day the door opens and a new pupil comes in? At the agricultural secondary school in Dajç alone, 45 pupils had not enrolled, while at the one in Koplik, which is among the best, 18 pupils were missing. One of the causes is the running around between the offices of the executive committee and the people’s councils to enrol children in other vocational schools in the city. So, instead of supporting the school, the family is getting in the way of its work. Public opinion is silent. Meanwhile, there are also parents whom the district education authorities keep waiting. Mathematics lessons cannot be held at the Bratosh and Pog schools because the teachers assigned there have not reported for duty. But when you learn that 109 teaching posts in the district remain unfilled, mainly in remote mountainous areas, it is easy to do the simple arithmetic and work out how many pupils go without lessons each day! Once again, public opinion is silent. A teacher’s diploma should weigh heavily on the conscience of these teachers. “Our concern is the remote areas,” they tell us at the education section. “When they finish higher education, should we see the completion of higher education?” [?] But the treatment of teachers in remote areas also requires more attention from the people’s councils and the presidiums of the cooperatives.” Efforts have certainly been made by the education authorities to establish order and discipline in every school from the first days of the school year. But apparently, inspections have not been effective everywhere. There are still absences. There are also bureaucratic reasons. At the industrial secondary school, it is customary for pupils to be registered each year… [?] by the local enterprises… [?] for the pupils. Anyone who does not bring it is not admitted to school. But… [?] is this form necessary every year? Yet that is not all. At this very school, on September 7, in the fifth-year mechanics class, there were 17 unexcused absences. No certificate is required for the fifth year! And on that same day, again in the fifth year, but now at the secondary school in Koplik, one class alone had five unexcused absences! We could go on, but we believe the most important and useful thing is to strengthen oversight so that this situation can be improved at once in all the district’s schools where shortcomings are observed… [?] And finally, what is the situation in your district? Let us consider this question a shared concern, through which we can draw the attention of that school administration or education section that has “shortcomings” like those of their colleagues in Shkodër.

Koman and Fierza are rare — With Professor FARUDIN HOXHEN — — The finest works of literature and art have been compared to hydroelectric power stations and giant combines. In your opinion, have our literature and art produced works of that kind in recent years? — I assume that by “recent years” you mean the last two or three years. I think that in these years we have had no Fierza or Koman. I would count among them Ismail Kadare’s “Diga e madhe” [“The Great Dam”], Dritëro Agolli’s “Nënë Shqipëri” [“Mother Albania”], the film “Udha e Shkronjave” [“The Road of Letters”], the song “Për ty Atdhe” [“For You, Fatherland”], and a few others. In recent years we have had nothing of that kind. To continue the comparison with hydroelectric power stations, I would say that we have many small hydroelectric stations. But whereas in the energy sector their installed capacity could be added together and might even reach that of Fierza or Koman, in literature and art this is not possible. In art, many “small hydroelectric stations” remain just many small hydroelectric stations, and nothing more. — As far as I follow cultural life, one gets the impression that it is rather dull. It is mainly limited to concerts, and even the standard is low. I went to a variety show only once, and I said I would never go again. The audience didn’t laugh there—the actors did…

— With the writer DRITËRO AGOLLI — As it has been said, even in the French press: Albanian literature cannot consist of just one or two isolated phenomena. There are many books that could be published successfully in France and in other countries. The publishing house “Fayard” is now publishing Migjeni’s stories. So there are people who have been even slower than “Zylua.” Migjeni was delayed by 60 years. All these works could and should have been published earlier, but we waited for the French translator when we could have done it ourselves, as, for example, with Vrioni. But translators around the world must also be sought out. There are very good German translators, Russian translators, and others. They should be brought closer and invited to Albania so that they can get to know us and we can get to know them. The books of Teodor Laço, Naum Prifti, Vath Koreshi, Kiço Blushi, Zija Çela, and others could all be translated with great success. And not only prose, but poetry too. Likewise, works from our literary tradition, such as those by N. Frashëri, L. Poradeci, F. Noli, De Rada, and others. The success of our translations abroad is not accidental. They demonstrate the vitality of this literature.

— With Professor DHIMITËR SHUTERIQI — - Talent is not only an individual gift; it is also a national asset. How have talented people been supported, and how should they be supported better? - Talent is one of the greatest assets, since it is a human asset. Our times have done a great deal to discover and support talent in Albania. It is essential to do more. The nation’s assets must be increased and developed. Greater attention must be paid to discovering talent in every field of life—in art, science, the economy and leadership. This is done by living alongside talented people, by kindling their enthusiasm at every step, by having them, then…

the greatest, since it is human wealth. Our time has done much to discover and help them in Albania. More must be done. The nation’s wealth must be increased and developed. More attention must be paid to discovering talents leadership. This is done by living alongside talents, by igniting their passion at every step, by therefore having them close— (Continued on page 3)

As part of the Week of Satire and Humor, which opened in Tirana on 11 September, yesterday a jubilee gathering was held in one of the halls of the National Historical Museum in the capital to mark the publication of the first issue of the magazine «Hosteni». Readers and contributors to the magazine, writers, journalists, caricaturists and other guests took part. Also present were Comrade Foto Çami, member of the Political Bureau and First Secretary of the Party’s Central Committee; member of the Party’s Central Committee, member and director of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism Studies, academician Prof. Shokli Jauti; the editor-in-chief of the satirical-humorous magazine «Hosteni», Dhimitër Dede; and other comrades. The editor-in-chief of the magazine «Osten», Eftim Projevski, and the director of the International Caricature Gallery, Ane Vasilevski, from Skopje, SR of Macedonia (Yugoslavia), were guests. The meeting was opened by Dritëro Agolli, chairman of the League of Writers and Artists. Niko Nikolla, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, spoke about the 45-year history of «Hosteni». Among other things, he pointed out that the magazine first appeared in the early months of 1945 under the care of the Party and personally of Comrade Enver Hoxha. The magazine «Hosteni» has served, and continues to serve, to educate our new, pure and more active and devoted person in every field of life and production. In oba

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To analyse the work carried out to regenerate exploited forests, and to determine the tasks ahead in order to guarantee the continuity of forestry production, the Ministry of Agriculture organized a national meeting at Laku i Hithit in the district of Pukë. Specialists and managers of forestry enterprises with responsibilities in this field, among others, took part. Also present were the member of the Political Bureau of the Party’s Central Committee, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Agriculture, Comrade Pali Miska,

lture, Comrade Pali Miska, the First Secretary of the Party Committee of the district, Ibrahim Hamza, and other comrades. The report was delivered by the Director General of Forests and Pastures, Bujar Bedalli. In the participants’ discussions, the notable achievements in regenerating exploited forests and the measures needed to guarantee the continuity of forestry production were highlighted. Comrade Pali Miska also spoke at the meeting. After commending the work done, he stressed the need for greater care for forests, which are a great national wealth not only for today’s generations but also for those to come. Referring to the instructions Comrade Ramiz Alia gave during his visit to the district of Pukë, he said that natural forest regeneration must be ensured at all costs. At the same time, forestry authorities should consider the silvicultural measures that need to be taken to guide regeneration so that the growth rate of young forests can be accelerated. (According to ATSH)

Yesterday, in one of the facilities of the Higher Agricultural Institute in Tirana, the Central Committee of the Albanian Labour Youth Union (BRPSH) organized a national gathering of cooperative youth. The gathering was attended by managers and staff of the youth committees’ offices in the districts and regions, of the state agricultural enterprises (NBs) and agricultural cooperatives, leading and elected activists, distinguished young men and women, etc. The report, on the topic «Let us address in time, with intelligence and militancy, the problems of the youth organization in the countryside», was delivered by Rrapo Zguri, secretary of the Central Committee of the BRPSH. In the report, discussions and debates, it was pointed out—

that cooperative youth is concerned with strong feelings of patriotism, with boundless faith and love for the Party, with an unshakable conviction in the superiority of our cooperative system and in the economic and social development of the countryside, (Continued on page 2)

- At the knitwear combine in Korçë, wages are being increased for 3,820 workers - “Come on, let’s work out how much we’re entitled to receive in the first half of October?” Several women workers gathered around Elsa Gusho, head of the organization section at the knitwear factory. And she replied: “Do I really need to explain it to you? The Council of Ministers’ announcement that you heard on television last night was very clear.” Conversations like this were only natural this morning in all the factories of the knitwear combine in Korçë, this large manufacturing enterprise with more than 4,300 workers. “I,” says Elvirë Bardhi, who works cutting labels by hand, “like my colleagues Paylina Blu-shi and Mirele Vangjeli, am paid at the first-category rate. We did the calculations, and after October 1, instead of the 397 lek we have been paid until now, we will receive 478 lek.” “Only in our knitwear factory,” the supervisor Parashqevi Kume tells us, “138 workers are getting a wage increase.” And across the combine? Natasha Petivani, head of the combine’s organization department, explains: 3,820 workers will benefit from wage increases. The annual increase in the wage fund amounts to more than 2 million lek.