Today, the Armed Forces took delivery of the first 40 tactical vehicles produced in Albania in accordance with NATO standards by Timak Defence, which began its operations as an Albanian start-up and has now become a manufacturing force for the military, in which the Albanian state holds shares through the Timak & KAYO partnership (the state-owned company established specifically for partnerships in the defence sector).
At the ceremony, Prime Minister Rama described this development as a historic day for Albania’s new military industry, stressing that the country has entered a new phase in which it is no longer merely a user of defence technology, but also a designer and developer of its own technological capabilities, thanks to the professionalism of Albanian experts and new partnerships in this strategic sector.
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Prime Minister Edi Rama: Good afternoon, everyone! Today is, in the fullest and most direct sense of the word, a historic day for the new military industry, because today what existed as a vision and in the written strategy can be seen and touched. The fleet produced in Albania for our Armed Forces, produced in accordance with NATO standards and by Albanian professionals, has just begun to be placed at the disposal of the Albanian military.
This is an extraordinary moment, because we have come here to see, touch and experience the result of a very long effort, an effort that began when Albania and the Armed Forces were on the brink of the abyss. They were in dire straits; they were simply an army kept standing by the passion, will, knowledge and patriotism of those who, since childhood, had devoted their lives to the military uniform, yet had been abandoned to their fate. There was no question of even imagining a military industry, while stories of tenders, stories of all kinds of complications and stories of purchases of mismatched machinery were the daily story of the Albanian state across all institutions and in every sector requiring this kind of logistics.
Today, we are witnessing that we have entered a new phase. We are witnessing an Albania that is not only a user of defence technology, but also a designer and developer of technological capabilities that have just begun to produce their first results.
And here I cannot help but pause for a moment on the central figure in this story, Arieta, a young woman from Bulqiza. Her family emigrated when she was only four years old. Her father, as a true son of that region, was deeply disappointed that he did not have a son, but only daughters, and Arieta decided to become her father’s “son”, following him step by step wherever he worked abroad, in a factory that manufactured motor vehicles. Then, at a certain point, after 25 years, Arieta decided to return to Albania and establish a start-up to produce motor vehicles in Albania.
Viewed with the mockery typical of Albania’s male-dominated reality and turned away at every institutional door where she might have received support, she decided to leave the men outside the door of her workshop and admit only women. And so an Albanian “Amazon start-up” was born, determined to challenge the entire male establishment of entrepreneurship in this country.
That is how we came to know Arieta, when she told me of her dream to produce the first 100% Albanian car. Yet, with the limited means available to it and in that situation of institutional isolation, her start-up had managed to export ambulances produced in that workshop here in Albania to Ukraine, while we continued buying ambulances and vehicles here, there and everywhere through tenders, sending the money abroad.
Then we made a gentlemen’s pact with her father’s “son”, and today we are here. We are here thanks to a new strategy which, as the minister also said, first and foremost created the company KAYO.
KAYO is a new public entity, wholly owned by the state, established as the epicentre of all developments in the new defence industry, based on one fundamental principle: we are not inclined to buy from abroad anything that we can produce here. We are not inclined to welcome foreign companies that take our assets and then move everything abroad. We are not inclined to watch others make profits while the Albanian state merely provides assets and receives only some of the benefits of this work, such as technology, employment and other advantages. Rather, we want every company that comes to invest in Albania and is welcomed here to accept the state as a partner.
Today, a company established to serve as the centre of gravity of our defence industry, with 100% state ownership, has begun generating revenue from these kinds of synergies, and all the companies that have come and will come from partner countries have only one door at which they sit down, discuss, negotiate and conclude agreements: the door of KAYO.
Soon, we will be together again to witness further achievements that, until yesterday, would have seemed unbelievable.
These vehicles were produced here in the country. They are 40 vehicles manufactured in cooperation with giants of the automotive industry, which have placed their trust in TIMAK and signed agreements with TIMAK. Under those agreements, TIMAK receives certain components and then carries out the entire vehicle production process here.
These vehicles are being placed at the disposal of the Albanian military.
And just imagine this: since 1992, after the wholesale scrapping and brutal dismantling of what had once been an industry—an industry which, had it been preserved, would have made Albania a point of reference in this new era of wars and collective defence challenges—and until we entered this new phase, the Albanian military suffered from a shortage of vehicles: one vehicle here, one vehicle there; five today, six tomorrow; three broke down, two were undergoing maintenance; seven arrived, four did not work.
Our plan, which we also discussed with the Chief of the General Staff, whom I must thank greatly for the momentum he has given to this entire phase of revival of the military industry, is for the Albanian military, by 2028, to have all the vehicles and all the capabilities it needs, from the lightest vehicle to the most sophisticated weapons.
There will no longer be a single four-wheeled vehicle missing from our Armed Forces.
There will be a large fleet of vehicles in accordance with NATO standards in relation to troop numbers and kilometres of territory, and at the same time it will be equipped with many other items that have begun to be designed and produced in the country. We have agreements with giants of the military industry, and do not be surprised when one day we come here again and display products made here that we will also supply to the largest military in the world, the United States military—products bearing the label “Made in Albania”. Imagine a United States soldier with a “Made in Albania” product as part of his equipment.
Who would have imagined it if you had been told this just a few years ago? No one. This is the other Albania that we have built, and it will now begin to generate different kinds of returns and products, in the military industry but not only there. As we speak, TIMAK is producing fourteen new fire engines. Today, we have a sizeable fleet of fire engines, but it is still completely insufficient. Instead of again searching here, there and everywhere, holding one tender today and two tomorrow, and ending up with some red, some burgundy and some orange vehicles depending on each successive tender, we will build a fire-engine fleet just like the military fleet, which has only now begun to take its final shape. We will have all the fire engines required by the Republic of Albania, in accordance with the standards of a NATO and European Union country, per capita, by territory and by kilometre.
The same applies to ambulances. And meanwhile, keep in mind what I said at the beginning: the state will spend money to acquire these vehicles on time, with the highest quality and with a maintenance base in place. It will no longer be a case of a vehicle being grounded, as happened with the helicopters we found when we came into office, 90% of which were sitting there like chickens, unable to fly because there was no maintenance. They had to be sent to Poland or who knows where, queues had to be endured, along with all kinds of absurdities. Today, they are all operational and connected to a single base, which is a NATO base. As regards all these fleets, maintenance will be carried out here in the country and KAYO—the state, the public company—will earn revenue from all this expenditure. Thus, the state pays TIMAK in this case, or another company in another case, because KAYO has concluded and continues to conclude a series of agreements; the private party receives its share, Arjeta receives hers, the state receives its own, and in this way part of the state’s money returns to the state and is reinvested wherever necessary.
This is the new Albania functioning every day. And I want to close with another innovation that again comes from this new force we have created here, and for which I once again thank the Chief of the General Staff. I am very grateful because he has taken very seriously several duties that previously seemed alien to chiefs of staff. I have nothing against his predecessor, who is our friend; I am referring to the fact that we ourselves were less knowledgeable and perhaps not sufficiently courageous. Here I am speaking about the new logistics base, which will be an Albanian military company serving all municipalities. It will be an infrastructure company carrying out maintenance and interventions related to drainage channels, irrigation canals, rural roads. It will, of course, support emergency response, but when there is no emergency, it will continuously serve local government.
This is extraordinary. The other extraordinary development is that the Ministry of Defence is finally opening up to tourism as well, in order to create something that every NATO military has except ours. All NATO militaries in tourist countries, in states with tourism, also have a component through which they make their assets available for tourism. And through this, once again, the Armed Forces receive their share.
Therefore, these partnerships are our new path. We will continue to establish such partnerships in every field where the time has come for the state to be a partner, where the time has come for state capacities to be made available not only for service delivery but also for generating profit, so that revenue can return to the state treasury and be reinvested for the benefit of citizens.
Thank you very much, everyone. This truly is a beautiful day. It truly is a historic day for our military industry, because this is the first public appearance—in the sense of products emerging from the factory doors—of “Made in Albania” goods. But it is only the first of many more such appearances, through which everyone will proudly see the level Albania is reaching in this field as well. And nothing is more exciting than seeing the list of countries that have already placed orders with TIMAK Defence. Thirty countries, NATO member countries, the United Nations and the World Bank are today turning to Albania, here in Tirana, to a place that until yesterday was a ruin—the ruins of the famous tractor factory—to obtain vehicles produced right here, thanks to the vision, courage, extraordinary work and determination, and also thanks to the exemplary stubbornness of a young woman from Bulqiza.
Thank you very much, everyone!
—We now proceed to the symbolic moment of this ceremony. I invite the Executive Director of TIMAK Defence to present the Prime Minister with the box containing the symbolic keys to the 40 vehicles.
Prime Minister Edi Rama: The Prime Minister does not know how to drive, so I will take the keys and hand them directly to the Chief of the General Staff. Therefore, the next ceremony involving vehicles will be for Shota. I hope so. Shota is a 100% locally produced vehicle, whereas these vehicles were produced in cooperation with industry giants which, as I said, supplied components that were then fully assembled in Albania and which, with their approval, also bear their logos today. This is the day when the Armed Forces are no longer a destination for young men and women who had no other path, but a gateway to national pride.
I am extremely pleased that the number of people wishing to join the Armed Forces has increased, and I say to all the young men and women here: you have made the best choice, because you are part of another sector in which your salaries will continue to rise and in which you will be the first, after judges and prosecutors—because we raised theirs earlier—to receive salaries at the average level of NATO forces. Today, your salaries are the highest in the entire region. At the same time, I call on all young women and men who are watching or still considering it not to hesitate, but to come and join these forces, because it is no longer a matter of saying, “Well, I am going to become a soldier”; it is a matter of saying, “I am becoming part of a new story of pride”, where we speak about technology, artificial intelligence, engineering, production and assembly; where we speak about entirely different things and, of course, where personnel are treated with the highest dignity. On the other hand, I can hardly wait for us to begin presenting several other things that are starting to be produced in Albania. As we have promised, the protection of the skies during the NATO Summit, which will also be attended by the President of the United States—and you know very well how such an event is protected from the air, from the ground, from Mars and from the Moon—will be carried out using super-intelligent drones produced here in Albania, “Made in Albania”. At the same time, we are now ready and have placed the order for the most sophisticated air-defence system, which Albania will also have very soon.
Thank you very much.
