Daniel Shure, former President of the America Israel Chamber of Commerce told Albanian Daily News that Albania was the one country that had more Jews after WWII than before; Albania had opened its borders for transit; Albania protected its Jews (and others) first from the fascists and then from the Nazis.

Daniel Shure is President of BeShure LLC, a consumer products consulting company. Mr. Shure served several terms as a director of the Toy Industry Association of America.  He is a Director of the Chicago Sister Cities International Program where he chairs the Petach Tikva, Israel Sister City Committee.  He also is an Executive Committee member and former President of the America Israel Chamber of Commerce, Chicago.  He has extensive experience in the non-profit world having also served as President of Jewish National Fund’s  Chicago board, Director of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, Director of Hillels of Illinois and Chair of the Jewish Federation’s Partnership 2000 program.  In addition, Shure is Honorary Ambassador of the Albanian-American Center for Cooperation and Cooperation.

America-Israel Chamber of Commerce Chicago was founded in 1958 by a group of Jewish business leaders who believed they could help Israel best by helping build its economy through bilateral trade.  “Our founder, Marty Sandler (1917-2011), led a group who built the first four-start hotel in Israel, and which Sheraton chose as its first management property outside the U.S. We continue to pursue our mission of facilitating bilateral trade but in this global economy bilateral quickly becomes multilateral and that's where our involvement with Kosovo and Albania begins. In 2012 at a meeting of all the Chambers of Commerce in Chicago (there's almost 100 I was told) Mr. Mamut Skenderi sought me and Michael Schmitt (our Executive Director) out to talk.  He was there representing the Assoc. of Albanian Businessmen, Intellectuals and Activists.  He wanted to tell us the story of Albania, Bessa, and its unique relationship to its Jewish population and to Jews in general and its admiration of Israel.  Neither of us knew, for instance, that Albania was the one country that had more Jews after WWII than before, that Albania had opened its borders for transit, that Albania protected its Jews (and others) first from the fascists and then from the Nazis.  We didn't know there were about 80 Albanians, mostly Muslim, honored as righteous gentiles in the Holocaust Museum (Yad Vashem) in Jerusalem.  And, we learned soon after that we were not the only ones who were not aware of all this,” the former President of the America Israel Chamber of Commerce, Daniel Shure, said in an exclusive interview for Albanian Daily News.

Mr.Shure said that on a personal level, they wanted to help get the story known but as a Chamber of Commerce that is not their mission.  Discussions ranged from how to get Albania's story widely known as well what goods Albania could be importing from Illinois and what kind of cultural and educational exchanges could be created.  All this was done along with the Albanian community in Chicago. “Soon after, Mayor Ziadan Sela from Struga, Macedonia came to Chicago and we met to discuss the needs of his city and how we may be able to help. Finally, we initiated contact with Mr. Kujtim Dobruna, the Economic and Investment Advisor to the President of Kosovo, and that eventually led to the Multilateral Investment Conference in November. We hope to create tech opportunities between Chicago and the Balkans.  Already, there is an active tech startup community in the Balkans and many Israeli and American companies outsource software engineering to companies there because of the lower wage rates.  1871, Chicago tech incubator will be instrumental in helping develop stronger startups and young, educated population.  President Jahjaga and 1871's CEO, Howard Tullman, have talked about sending Kosovar startups to 1871's "boot camp" for several months in which they go through intensive training designed to catapult them forward rapidly and then return to Pristina,” Shure noted.

He underlined that they see interest in more traditional sectors expressed in many areas including dairy, food, wine and beer, agricultural products, mining and infrastructure, energy, including coal, oil and LNG, cleantech, water technologies, leisure industries, including hotel, resorts, family recreation, pharma, including herbal remedies. Kosovo, the U.S. and Israel can and should cooperate in many segments, Shure stated. 

“From agritech to energytech to cleantech and water tech there are projects in which Israeli technology, along with Kosovar assets and U.S. marketing and distribution would be natural partners.  Already, Israeli tech companies are doing software engineering in Albanian countries.  For instance, Tab Tale, is the fourth largest app company nearing one billion downloads of their mobile games.  Founded in Tel Aviv, they have offices and develop and manage games and apps in Skopje, Macedonia as well as Las Vegas, Nevada. In the energy sector, Israel’s Tamar and Leviathan gas fields in the Mediterranean are among the biggest in the world. Distribution through the Balkans for sale throughout Eastern Europe would be a natural,” he said.

Shure underlined that there are U.S. and Canadian companies who are or have worked with Albania, Kosovo, and Israel in these areas, but there is one obstacle to attracting direct foreign investment, the government has no control over the commodity prices. 

“When coal or oil are trading at lower prices the prospects for foreign investment are low.  But the larger issue is the political risk associated with dealing with the region. Companies do not like political risk.  Business risk is better understood.  But political risk is difficult to cost out and many companies will back away from opportunities rather than accept it.  This is an area Kosovo must focus on to attract investment.  Companies and investors demand larger returns in exchange for the risk.  And, that means lower investment proceeds to the country and lower revenue streams on an ongoing basis.  Self-dealing, public corruption, border and ownership disputes, stop and go privatization programs and tear gas protests in Parliament are reasons to pass on investment opportunities in Kosovo. But we are just starting in our attempts to facilitate and encourage trade with Kosovo.  And, Kosovo has advantages that most countries do not.  One is an engaged and sophisticated diaspora.  The second is that once people have been to Kosovo it seems they fall in love with the people and the country quickly and they want to be involved. We are meeting people who went to Kosovo for a client or along with a Kosovar friend, and once there they are hooked.  We have private equity investors looking for businesses to buy in Kosovo and while they are motivated to earn a profit they also are on a personal mission to help the country by creating employment opportunities.  And, we have met many individual business owners who are also investors who want to invest in Kosovo.  Our role will be to help find the opportunities for investment for whatever size and type of investment people or companies want to find.  We will also “sell” Kosovo to industry.  If there is a tender for mining equipment we want to make sure Midwest manufacturers know early enough to get in on the process,” he said.

Shure concluded saying that by this time next year, they expect to be able to point back to a trade mission. They will put together subsequent investments as well that come from that trade mission.  That will be a good beginning of a relationship between Kosovo and the America-Israel Chamber of Commerce Chicago.