By DASHNOR KALOÇI
Part Three
Memorie.al / The island of Sazan, surrounded mainly by rocky coastline and clear blue water, as well as Zvërnec with its monastery on the small island, the beach with sand dunes, the forest with tall pines and the quite rich flora and fauna, which constitute a rare natural beauty, for several months now have become the talk of the day in the media and politics, not only in Albania but also in the international arena, (due to a giant tourism project with a complex of villas and resorts that is envisaged to be built by a foreign company from the USA), it seems they have not been places too well known only for the picturesque tourist landscape they offered, but also for underground wealth! Such as gas and oil, otherwise considered “black gold.” Among other things, this is also made known by an archival document from 1989, which contains the minutes of the meeting of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the PPSh [Party of Labor of Albania], chaired by Ramiz Alia, in which Lenka Çuko, member of the Political Bureau and secretary of the Central Committee, as well as Besnik Bekteshi, member of the Political Bureau and Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy, also participated.
As we shall see from the document in question, during the meeting of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the PPSh (which in fact were working coffees that Ramiz Alia held at the Party House with his subordinates, members of the Bureau and the secretaries of the Central Committee, which were recorded and transcribed), the Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy, Besnik Bekteshi, (considered one of the most prepared and most professional that the Albanian government of that time had), after having made a long summary of his visit to the district of Tropoja, speaking mainly about the mineral wealth that area had in the north-east of the country, stopped and also spoke about the entire range of problems of the sectors covered by the department he headed, such as oil, gas, chrome, copper, coal, iron, energy, etc., in all the districts of the country, from north to south.
Likewise, during that conversation, Minister Bekteshi (who paradoxically had long been followed and surveilled by the State Security, as a possible agent of the Secret Services of Bulgaria, where he had graduated), also stopped at foreign companies such as West German, Romanian, etc., that had offered to search for oil and gas in our country, mainly on the coast of Zvërnec and the island of Sazan, where the first wells had been opened for oil exploration that was thought to be in the depths of the sea.
In addition to Minister Bekteshi’s exposition, during that working meeting, Ramiz Alia informed them (Bekteshi and Lenka Çuko, who surprisingly speaks with quite a lot of competence also about oil and mining problems), regarding the meeting and conversations he had had those days in Tirana with Zhoa Amazonas, (the chairman of the Marxist-Leninist party of Brazil), with whom he was an adviser on the problems of foreign companies that had offered to search for oil and other mineral wealth in our country. Regarding this, etc., the document in question informs us, which has recently been extracted from the Central State Archive (fund of the former Central Committee of the PPSh), which is published for the first time and in full (with the corresponding facsimiles) by Memorie.al.
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE SECRETARIAT OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE PPSh, DATED 6.VI.1989, CHAIRED BY RAMIZ ALIA, IN WHICH LENKA ÇUKO AND BESNIK BEKTESHI ALSO PARTICIPATED
M E E T I N G
OF THE SECRETARY COMRADES OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE PARTY
June 6, 1989
At this meeting there was discussion about the new discoveries in chrome; about the development of the conference of the Democratic Front of the district of Tropoja; about communist militancy; about the better concretization of tasks and about the problem of the mechanism of work and remuneration; about the progress of works in the sector of oil and other minerals; about the issue of risk firms; about the sharpening of the method of work in the Ministry of Foreign Trade, about some problems that the very development of our country raises and about various problems.
The meeting is chaired by comrade Ramiz Alia, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party. In this meeting participate comrade Lenka Çuko, member of the Political Bureau and secretary of the Central Committee; and comrade Besnik Bekteshi, member of the Political Bureau and Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy.
Continues from the previous issue
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Did the German specialists come to talk about Factory 12?
COMRADE BESNIK BEKTESHI: The first group was expected yesterday or today. Our side too, the comrades are prepared to talk concretely about what should be done regarding the reconstruction of Factory 12 without interrupting production. We are waiting to see what results this meeting will bring. These days I have talked about these problems with comrade Adil.
The plans in these directions that we mentioned are great, but they also need support. I have no great pretension, but I think that both agriculture and chrome and oil need to be given greater support.
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: I agree that chrome and oil should have greater support, but now I say that we should give priority to solving the transport problem, a sector in which there are many weaknesses.
COMRADE BESNIK BEKTESHI: Starting from the growing demands for transport and its inability to cope with the large volume of work, I am of the opinion that a plenum should be held on transport problems.
COMRADE LENKA ÇUKO: A plenum was held on transport problems, but it seems it was general and there was no change.
COMRADE BESNIK BEKTESHI: If we speak about plenums, comrade Lenka, they have been concrete; however time and development continuously bring out new problems. In the iron mine in Gurin e Kuq, we have almost all processes mechanized, something that brought no problem either for the workforce or for the realization of the plan. In our country there are also other mines in which many work processes are mechanized.
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: Both the coal mine in Memaliaj and the chrome and copper mines must necessarily be mechanized.
COMRADE LENKA ÇUKO: The investments made in these mines compared to oil give faster and more effectiveness. In truth we also have great need for oil, but these sectors come to the aid of the economy much faster.
COMRADE BESNIK BEKTESHI: Truly chrome and copper come much faster to the aid of the economy and have more effectiveness, but our economy has great need for oil and these needs are increasingly growing, therefore we cannot reduce investments in the oil sector.
COMRADE LENKA ÇUKO: The means of transport are consumed and spend a lot.
COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA: The means of transport should be renewed, but now we have limited possibilities, therefore care should be devoted to their maintenance and more rational utilization. Even the more intensive utilization of minerals as well as the opening of new mines, we find it difficult to do at one time, because great investments are needed.
The relevant departments should look at the possibility of attracting foreign firms to this enterprise, for mechanization, for the expansion or opening of mines. This work I think will be profitable, since it gives us the possibility of initial investment. Foreign firms are interested in entering into such an operation. For coal, the West Germans and the Romanians are interested.
If we engage, let us say, the Romanian in a contract, let it be clear that the investment will be repaid with half of the mine’s production increase, which it will take upon itself to carry out the mechanization. The repayment deadline can be set for a period of 4–5 years. Thus our economy has profit. The same thing should be done both for chrome and for copper.
I have the impression that with foreign firms there is no serious work being done by the relevant departments, so that they too do not know whom to address. When the problem arises for the opening of a mine or for its mechanization, I think there is no reason to address a foreign state, but a firm with which we agree that the expenses will be repaid with the mine’s production. For the conclusion of the agreement, both sides will set out their demands according to the interests they have. Our representatives in these cases should start from economic profit.
Agreements such as these that we conclude with firms let us not link them to particular states, because no state is predisposed to accept our conditions. We have made it clear that we do not take credit, but we want to enter into a relationship with the form of technical-financial cooperation. In these conditions, we are interested in entering into relationships with particular forms. In a conversation I had with Amazona, I also spoke about the oil problems in our country.
Among other things, I told him that from the scientific data we possess, it appears that the oil goes toward the sea, something that makes its search, discovery and exploitation difficult for us because of the limited possibilities we currently have. Furthermore, I told him that offers have been made to us by some foreign firms to conduct searches at sea, but in fact we have not reached any concrete conclusion.
He, without knowing anything about the conversations we had conducted regarding cooperation with foreign firms for the exploitation of the sea, said that today in the world the form of risk agreements is quite widespread. “But this form,” he continued, “also has a catch: The firm makes the expenses, it may even discover oil, and when it comes down to it, it says it has found nothing. Capital does this in order to know and calculate the world oil reserves, and, on this basis, OPEC and the big oil companies make their price policy.”
This, what Amazona said, may perhaps be the reason that these firms are interested in knowing: is the oil-bearing basin of the Adriatic such a large basin, as to influence world reserves? At first, the foreign firm with which we may agree, our departments may find oil and declare the opposite, while at a second stage, depending on its interests, it proposes to conduct drilling again, but on this occasion it is convinced that…there are oil reserves there and it comes out winning.
This thing they have done one hundred percent, the Soviets in our country. They hid their discoveries by saying that our underground is not an oil-bearing layer, but how true their conclusions were, our specialists proved, who conducted drilling in these zones and found oil. This policy the Soviets did not follow only for oil, but for all minerals.
The conversation with Amazona we continued about the development of agriculture. I spoke to him about the new tractors we bought from the Federal Republic of Germany, also showing him the form of deferred payment. Amazona, without knowing details about the discussions that have been held on this issue, said that this form of trade too is quite widespread in the world today and that it has nothing in common with credit.
The very development of the world economy makes it necessary, he concluded, to use such forms of payment. These issues I discussed with Amazona in order to show him that with us nothing is done spontaneously, but problems are discussed, opinions are thrashed out and then we arrive jointly at conclusions.
The problems of building socialism are not put into a framework, they require discussions. The road we follow is an untrodden road that requires maturity and common thoughts, because otherwise, inadvertently, we may fall into contradiction with principles. These are key economic problems that socialist development brings out, but that have a political character and as such give rise to the need to clarify each one.
There may be cadres who, without knowing the essence, consider the arrival of a foreign firm in our country to open or mechanize a mine as the creation of a joint enterprise. The joint enterprise presupposes in essence the merging of capitals.
On the basis of the regulation for its creation, both sides determine: the initial capitals they put in; the volume of investments they make; the workforce each maintains; the technology they will use; the selling price of the products and the lifespan of the enterprise itself; and, finally, which of the co-owners will inherit this enterprise after the specified term in the contract has passed.
Foreign Trade this year is going well, because transactions are helping, but we should not be satisfied with this, since they too can leave us in the mud. Also, price conjunctures change. Therefore, importance should be given to domestic production, whether agricultural, livestock, or industrial.
Then, from the strategic point of view, we must give importance to the creation of conditions for the development of the productive forces; only thus can we secure for export chrome, copper, coal, electricity, processed agricultural and livestock articles, etc. Starting from this strategic goal, Foreign Trade too must strive to reduce to a minimum the export of raw materials and increase processed products, because here the living labor of people is also included.
The rise in prices of the products we export is in our favor, but this does not mean that we should rely only on this. In recent years action was taken toward changing the structure of exports. This makes it possible for our country not to find itself in difficult situations. Years ago, priority in export was held by electricity, oil, and after them came chrome, iron, copper and agricultural products. However, the expansion of the range of exports, the decision for changes in the priorities of products eased the economy in a certain way. The export of electricity we stopped entirely, since our own economy needed it, etc.
The development of the economy is done in a dialectical manner. The cadres and specialists who deal with trade must be capable and agile. Albanian cognac, for example, is preferred and renowned in the world, but now, for lack of molasses, production has fallen greatly. Would it not be more correct to buy molasses abroad? I think yes. In this way, not only is molasses cheap and cognac sold dear, but we create an additional work front for industry, we secure work for the workers for the whole year.
I also had something for the Ministry of Internal Trade. In today’s conditions of rapid economic development, the Ministry of Internal Trade should not play the role of a mother that is, of taking products from industry and agriculture and putting them out for sale on the market, but should transform into a selling and producing organ.
Internal trade, seeing the demands of the people that are always increasing, can create small workshops for the production of articles that industry cannot cope with, such as sugar candies, caramels, biscuits, soft drinks, and organize their sale.
Our people must have more initiative. The ideas of the plenum of the Central Committee of the Party must be a source of inspiration for them. With the decisions that the 7th Plenum of the Central Committee took, we aimed to make the peasants interested in increasing agricultural production. When we say that it made the peasant interested, why should we not also imply the worker? Yes, our people do not take the initiative to extend these decisions also to industry.
The 6th Plenum of the Central Committee set tasks for the further development of exports, opening a horizon for the expansion of trade with other countries, etc. But internal trade, why does it not bring out tasks for the best possible organization of its activity within the country? The problems that socialist development brings out every day are not easy.
They must be given solutions without delay. The Party must instill in our people full confidence in the vitality of socialism, in the very possibilities and colossal reserves that our social order contains in it. Marxist-Leninist theory, as the theory of the proletariat, is the most progressive ideology of society.
Our people, equipped with this theory, are capable of avoiding every obstacle, of facing every difficulty. Yesterday Reisi (Malile) came to me and made self-criticism for his reaction and stance in the meeting of the Political Bureau. You, I said, act rightly in making self-criticism and this problem will be closed between us. A communist must openly tell the Party what he thinks; no one should have prejudices and keep reserves.
This fact does not worry me and you did well, I continued that you said those words in the meeting of the Political Bureau, but what worries me is the mentality that has taken hold among you, which will hinder you in work. It is wrong to use in your work that method of work that we followed 25 years ago. Times have changed; other problems have come to the fore. Today is not that time when we fought to accept China into the UN. My concern should not be only for you as Reiz, I said, but for the entire apparatus of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Furthermore I told him that you were wrong to attack Sofokli Lazri in the meeting of the Political Bureau. His discussion on the method of work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was very correct and even too constructive, it was help for you. He showed how your apparatus should work in these conditions and it is a completely normal thing. Certainly, Reisi’s self-criticism was normal. When a person expresses his thoughts, he reflects on what he says
Comrades must express their thoughts openly and without fear. Only in this way will we correct each other. All comrades are militants and combative. Each expresses an opinion starting from the concern he has for work, he does not start from wrong positions, but when he says some wrong thought, we have the duty to correct it. Therefore, in order to exchange thoughts with one another and to discuss problems more freely, I think it is indispensable, it is for the good of the Party’s work./ Memorie.al
