7  See, for example, Genre, V., R. Gomez-Salvador and A. Lamo (2005): “European Women: Why do(n’t) they work”, ECB Working Paper Series, No 454, March 2005. 8  See Anthony Annett (2006) “Lessons from successful labour market reformers in Europe” IMF euro area policies: selected issues, August 2006. 4  BIS Review 82/2007  Increasing competition What all these countries also have in common is a significant reduction of product market regulation. This leads to the second prerequisite for higher medium to long-term growth: increasing competition towards establishing efficient and well-functioning product markets. Most studies point to the potential that improving competition has to increase employment in the medium and long run, and to boost productivity trends by improving production efficiency and by enhancing the incentive to invest and innovate 9 . In the EU, some progress has been made in this regard. For example, several network industries, like telecommunications, are now fully or largely open to competition and the hourly labour productivity in this particular sector significantly accelerated from 4.9% to 8.4% over the periods 1980-1995 and 1996-2004 By comparison in the US, hourly labour productivity grew by 3.4% and 4.4% over the same periods in the telecommunication sectors. A lot remains to be done, however: the extension and deepening of the EU internal market remains a priority in particular as regards further financial market integration, the pursuit of effective competition in the energy market and the implementation of the Services Directive. Member States have the primary responsibility for these tasks.
In conclusion, allow me to say that the Bank of Albania is in the process of perfecting the supervision regulatory framework, in the context of its cooperation with the European System of Central Banks. However, full and timely respect of legal and regulatory framework requirements on operational capitalisation and liquidity, as well as bank’s overall operational risk management methodology will continue to be an ongoing supervision priority. This process is oriented by the common objective to maintain banking and financial systems stability. The Bank of Albania remains committed to cooperate with the banking sector to achieve successfully this objective. As in previous years, the Bank of Albania will make the appropriate decisions to ensure that its fundamental objectives to maintain price and banking sector stability are constantly accomplished for the country’s stable growth in the long run. Thanking you for your valuable work, I wish you a New Year full of successes in your work and happiness in your families! Thank you! BIS central bankers’ speeches  3