Prime Minister Edi Rama met and talked with ordinary citizens and members of quake-affected families waiting to move into newly-built homes, owners of various businesses, retail shops along Egnatia street in the city of Durres. Shaking hands with small business owners, the Premier assured them of his government support and the zero tax policy on small businesses.

The post-earthquake reconstruction programme is also progressing fast in all affected areas in the city of Durres. Repair and reconstruction work has already completed in many residential buildings in Durres and the quake-affected families have already moved into their renovated homes. Prime Minister Rama, accompanied by the Minister of State for Reconstruction Arben Ahmetaj, and the Mayor of Durres Emirjana Sako, visited some of the newly-renovated apartments. Minister Ahmetaj informed that work is underway to repair the DS4-tagged buildings that have sustained damages to their structure and foundations.

“Durres is the municipality that has benefited the largest share of direct government’s compensation grants awarded to the affected families and funds to support repair of communal premises,” Ahmetaj said.

The government head noted that the reconstruction process is progressing fast and that rebuilding and repair efforts in 400 apartment buildings have completed so far. “It is really stressful when you consider how many more people are still waiting for the new homes to be built, but this is unavoidable. We have progressed extremely fast, but damage assessments should be conducted in every building and new rounds of verifications have taken place after the complaints filed by residents. The process has also included the tender procedures, the contracts and the construction work that has ensued. Work to rebuild 400 apartment buildings gas completed and many more others are in the process. We have started the repair work on the DS4-tagged buildings, which is a much more complex than constructing new apartment buildings from scratch. We will speed up the work, but it takes a little patience.”

The government head also visited the vaccination site at the sports hall, where inoculation of the Sputnik V has started. Health Minister Ogerta Manastirliu informed that administering the Sinovac vaccines will begin soon. Speeding up the immunisation process – the Premier said – is also very good news about the prospect of the upcoming tourism season. “We feel really relieved today. All we need is to accelerate vaccination in order to salvage the summer tourism season,” the Premier said.

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“June 1” kindergarten in Durres, which was flattened by the November 26 earthquake, is rebuilt back better than before in line with the European infrastructure standards for the 147 kids there. During his visit to Durres, PM Rama also visited an education facility reconstructed under the EU-funded “EU4SCHOOLS” programme through the UNDP.

Durres Mayor Emirjana Sako said that construction of 14 education facilities, while construction of five more schools is underway.