Prime Minister Edi Rama has counted some of the contributions of the United Nations Development Program in Albania. In his speech, at the ceremony of the 30th anniversary of this program, Rama said that he has given an unforgettable hand to the country by being present at several important moments, from administrative reform to justice reform. 

In the end, Rama exchanged jokes with those present, comparing the program with an ant that works slowly and according to him, does greater work than an elephant. 

"They gave me a very long speech. I am trying to speak as concisely as possible, which does not come very easily to me after the Swedish ambassador who gave a special tone to this tribune. Albania joined the United Nations in December 1955 but it took so many years to enter into meaningful relations through the development program. The aim was to give the country oxygen in a moment of dramatic change that, along with freedom, had brought a mountain of challenges and difficulties. It is unimaginable that in the span of a lifetime we have had the good fortune to see two worlds so different from each other. 

We had nothing to do with United Nations development programming. We are non-permanent members of the security council. There are many things that have been done in these 30 years by this cooperation between the program and the government. What impresses me is the fact that the program has been present in the most critical and key moments of this extraordinary process of transforming the country from a closed dictatorship to a democracy under construction. The program was present with the opening of the first school of administration, at the time of the great riots of 1997. The program was in the period of the historical turn of Tirana. 

An entire society had to enter a real course against illiteracy. The program has an unforgettable hand in the history of our country. It was also present at some important moments where we had to conceive impactful reforms, from the administrative one to the justice reform. It was present when we had to deal with the issue of floods. 

I have not had any love story with UNDP. I believe that in this case it is not out of place to count the things done. I mentioned just a few of the many things done. When I was going through the to-do list, I had the feeling of an ant’s work. The program is an ant compared to large elephants. But an ant that manages to make possible an imaginable amount of work for its size. I do not know what it would have done if it had the elephant's opportunity. The ant has no choice but to make up for what nature has not given it. At the end of the day, it is a fact that the volume of work done and the quantities of loads in relation to the unit represented by ants are greater than those of larger bodies", said Rama.