Aldo Merkoçi, photo: Fisnik Xhelili/Portalb.mk, used with permission. This interview is based on original coverage by Portalb.mk, Albanian-language news site from North Macedonia. An edited version is republished here under a content-sharing agreement between Global Voices and the Metamorphosis Foundation. The countries of the Western Balkans have been tackling the challenge of the digitization of public services at different pace. Compared to other countries in the region, Albania is the leader in this process. Albania’s digital revolution that started in 2013 included only 14 electronic services then, while today its government provides 1,225 e-services. Translated into percentages, this shows that Albania has digitized 95 percent of public services, for which by 2022 there were 27 million requests by citizens. This Portalb.mk interview with Aldo Merkoçi from Lëvizja Mjaft! (“Civil Movement Enough!”) addresses the process and challenges of digitalization in Albania. Mjaft! is the leading civil society organization from Albania promoting the Digital Agenda for the Western Balkans, including the use of online tools for accountability. Portalb: How did the citizens of Albania experience the process of transformation of services from counter to electronic form? Aldo Merkoçi (AM): The digitization process in Albania was relatively fast. The process officially started in 2011, but actually experienced a revolution around 2017. Somewhere around 2015, we had the first digital agenda strategy and it explained what the government wanted to do. The peculiarity of digitization in Albania is that it took place in parallel with the pandemic. Two things were combined: on the one hand, the will of the government to implement the digitization process, and, on the other hand, the urgent need arose due to the pandemic because citizens were forced to access the e-Albania portal, a portal that covers the entire digitalization process in Albania. We should bear in mind that the case of Albania is a special case because of this combination of factors, and not that the citizens here are any more special than the rest. In this context, the pandemic was of great help for citizens to understand the process of digitization, to understand how this process helps people first, not only in the issue of reducing corruption in the state administration but as a result also for saving time and increasing efficiency. In this context, it was well received by the citizens. Although parallel to that, there was some mistrust. The mistrust stemmed from two basic reasons. The first reason was the general mistrust that the citizens of the Western Balkans have towards their governments and politics in general. The second reason is that the digitization process requires certain additional knowledge that we had not yet learned because the citizens did not have the opportunities and mechanisms to adapt. Albanian citizens have begun to understand the importance and value of digital services, but we are still far from realizing the significance of virtual identity. A significant portion of the population still has difficulty logging in because of the knowledge surrounding the functioning of these electronic service applications. Portalb: How much has the quality of services improved through digital transformation? AM: This was the key to success, in fact, for most citizens, now we are talking about services that are everyday and common. Today it is very simple, for anyone who has the means, to access the e-Albania portal. This helped in the digital transformation process as a good number saw the benefits of this work. The reason for this is that, until yesterday, when the registration was physical, the citizen had to leave work, they had to get a permit for that, had to go to the office, then had to wait in line, and even once you get to speak to a clerk, they would orally demand additional documents, alongside other requests from the employees in the state administration. Now, this whole process of taking leave from work, waiting in line, and having doubts about what documents need to be prepared in advance, has been digitized. Moreover moving the service online eliminated the “custom” attributed to the “Balkan mentality” which included leaving “tips” for state administration employees when a service is performed. And these “tips” were not insignificant amounts [like one would leave for a waiter], but amounted to small bribes. These are the first steps that gained the trust of the citizens. In this context, it is evident that the service is better, faster, and more reliable, and there are no doubts about the system.