Serbian Trade and Telecommunication Minister Rasim Ljajic said today that Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama objection to Telekom Serbia acquisition of Telekom Albania was “scandalous and unheard of,” Beta news agency reported.
Minister Ljajic said that Telekom was not a privately-owned telecommunication company, but even “if it were, Edi Rama’s statement that Telekom Serbia was not a preference of the Albanian Government would have also been scandalous.”
Rama said that Serbian companies were generally welcome to Albania, adding his government usually did not participate in private transactions, but that mobile telecommunication sector “is a strategic one.”
Telekom Serbia was one of the bidders for the company in Albania.
“So, he (Rama) is blocking the selling of a German company. It looks like the investors from Serbia are welcome when there is a need for economic cooperation, but not in the telecommunication sector,” Ljajic said.
He added he couldn’t remember “that anyone in the world has ever said something like that in public. Money doesn’t have color, nationality or race.”
