The reward of an excellent work in an unknown domain is the 6900 students who have chosen to attend as an elective subject “Personal finance in your hands” published by the Bank of Albania. In cooperation with the Ministry of  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  Education and Science, we are endeavouring to make this book available in every school and to each student with the ultimate goal for them to be educated financially and empowered to manage personal finance. Only in this academic year, high-school students in 36 districts of Albania chose this book as an elective subject, making us optimistic and forward-looking. We strongly believe that the today’s young generation will be the protagonists of tomorrow’s economic life. For this purpose, we need to make our utmost investment for their formation, in order to ensure not only their future, but also the country’s future. The youth are eager and capable to assimilate, process and convey information, habits, or new products in any field of life. They are the transmitters of innovation, the most energetic and progressive segment of the society. It is our moral, professional and institutional responsibility to invest for a qualitative education of the young generation. To us, enhancing financial literacy is crucial. A well-educated nation guarantees its country’s welfare and progress. Therefore, we have decided to choose the young generation as our strategic partner to realize this challenge. We believe in their idealism, positive energy and pure spirit.
2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  Thanking you for your attention, allow me to announce the winners of the Best Diploma awards for 2011:   The third prize is awarded to Ardit Azizaj, an MA student of the New York University in Prague, for his dissertation “What Albania’s possibilities are, in future, regarding the world division of labour?” His dissertation focuses on the impossibility of a country to transform its economy successfully from a poor and centralised to a developed economy.   The second prize is awarded to Ledia Sulejmani, a student of the University of Tirana for her dissertation “Economic developments in Western Balkans, future challenges.” Her dissertation describes distinctions and characteristics of Western Balkan countries as regards economic indicators, in light of a common area and its future challenges.   The first prize is awarded to Borana Angjeli, an MA student of Marin Barleti University in Tirana for her dissertation “Pension systems”. Drawing on results from a survey to employees close to their retirement, the thesis points out some of the shortcomings of the pension system in Albania and makes recommendations on changes to the actual pension scheme, in line with European principles, without being a heavy burden for the state budget. Thank You! BIS central bankers’ speeches  3