Prime Minister Edi Rama at meeting on 100 Villages National Program in the village of Libofshe, Fier:

Hello everyone and thank you very much for being here!

We are here today as part of a series of meetings at the main stations of the 100 Villages Program.

It is important to point out the fact that Albania has of course a lot more than 100 villages, but the 100 Villages National Program is projected to include not only concrete interventions and infrastructure development projects in the selected 100 villages countrywide, including Libofshe, but it is also designed to create agritourism models and we are confident that once these models take shape they will soon spread all over the country, providing the necessary examples how a sleeping potential can be transformed into a source to increase income for household economy.

This village is fortunate to inherit 15 old churches and the Ministry of Culture will implement restoration projects also under the 100 Villages Program and should we all together understand or agree on projects to transform private homes and immovable properties into guesthouses and farm accommodation units then this area will definitely become an integral part of the whole space of tourism development in Albania.

The 100 Villages Program is a social and economic development model and the interventions we plan to carry out to develop this model are designed not only to transform the infrastructure or merely implement road construction projects as it has been always the case, but encourage and support initiatives to usher in a new stage of development.

Libofshe has been and will continue to be an important agricultural hub. The government agricultural and rural development policies will definitely yield more results especially following the government’s decision to remove tax on agricultural inputs, as well as the government’s support for entrepreneurs and farming households through the programs being implemented by the Agricultural and Rural Development Agency (ARDA). Yet it is time to think about more than that.

It is time to move beyond this.

It is time to think about agritourism development, because this is not just an agricultural area where planting, growing, and harvesting are successful, for the sake of truth, but it is also a territory where nature with its components, the cultural and historic heritage can all harmonize to build a successful agritourism system that would see private homes turned into guesthouses and accommodation units, which would become a major source of income and economic development.

What I am saying and what the Minister and the Mayor already said is not something we have just dreamed about and we are now telling all over Albania, but it is a projected that has been already implemented by others previously. Not far from here, the rural Italy is full of such examples and Fier would definitely be not only an attraction that would see a growing number of visitors to its archaeological and religious sites. The question is where and how these visitors would be accommodated? What do they want and what the area offers them? Of course, the visitors to these areas, potentially large in numbers, won’t ask to be accommodated in luxury. They won’t ask for modern conveniences they randomly find in the countries they come from, instead they would long for typically traditional aspects of this area and other areas where the selected 100 villages are located. To this end, we have adopted a new tax regime with a profit tax rate of five percent only on agritourism.

That’s why we have cut the previous 20% VAT rate to only six percent – just like the VAT rate on the five-star hotels – for everyone seeking to start an agritourism business, which means building a guesthouse with a certain number of rooms and a farm that provides supplies of locally grown fresh produce.

For that reason, we have estimated that, if agritourism sector in Europe today – when I say Europe I mean mainly European areas similar to your area or similar to the 100 selected villages – accounts for around 20% of the tourism industry revenues, and that is translated into billions, and if agritourism is becoming an increasingly mostly sought and elite form of tourism for a certain category of visitors, who seek not only sunshine and snow, but more than that, then imagine for a moment what a tremendous transformation would take place should an additional amount of over 500 million euros would add up to the amount of 2 billion euros in revenues generated by Albania’s tourism industry last year.

Agritourism has turned out to be an activity that eradicates poverty even in the seemingly hopeless areas, but it would suffice their beautiful nature and traditional hospitality we find all over Albania and it takes some care and hard work to build and organize the entire hospitality system and the poverty would be eradicated. It is that easy. Should for someone who independently cultivates a small plot of land becomes increasingly difficult to earn a living or becomes impossible for him to access the market and sell his produce, then that land plot and his private home could be the basis for construction of a farm accommodation unit and guesthouse that would generate enough income to earn and lead a good life.

Of course, development of the country’s agriculture is a government top priority and development objectives will be achieved by farmers who have come together to create joint and more powerful enterprises. In the meantime, those who theoretically are unable to join this path towards agriculture development, they should trust in another power, that is the power of hospitality, to build a system, which has already shown it helps migrants to make a lot more money than they earn while working abroad should they invest savings in agritourism business.

We are confident that the migrants’ savings will gradually be injected in the agritourism sector, by investing in their own private homes back in their villages to create traditional and not luxury accommodation and hospitality conditions, providing visitors the opportunity to taste traditional food and delicacies and enjoy the nature wonders and cultural heritage of these areas. This would mark a significant step in quality of household economy.

Like a few other rural areas in Albania, Libofshe is ideally located and positioned for this kind of rural tourism development. I won’t go over details that were provided here, either by the Minister or by the Mayor. What Mayor highlighted as a strategic need for the areas development, and that is access to the sea, is certainly a government priority and it will be one of the projects we will jointly develop during the Mayor’s second term in office.

We will definitely support investment projects on construction of water supply systems, irrigation and sewerage networks, education, reconstruction of schools – the first Albanian school built by Ismail Qemali’s government was constructed exactly in this area – but what I want to point out during this speech is that our common attention will focus on how these private homes could transform and become part of nascent hospitality industry.

Prior to the meeting, we were talking about a project to revitalize the village’s square. The village squares have been identified as a significant potential for the countryside development and the very square of this village has a potential to transform and turn into an attraction, not only for the local residents, but also for the visitors. Our challenge is how to develop accommodation facilities for the visitors who wish to stay longer in the area. This is the question we need to answer in the coming future and we should work together on this respect. The 100 Villages National Program will provide funding and grants to the municipality, households and individuals who plan to join this process.

If someone presents the cost of a project designed to turn his own private home and plot of land into a guesthouse and farm accommodation unit, then the government will cover a part of the amount under the 100 Villages Program, and grants provided under ARDA program and European Union funds. So, I am talking about grants and not bank loans. So, it is just a matter of project. The only difference is that one should draft first the project in order to become eligible to grants under EU-funded program.

So if agreed, an accord is signed stipulating that you build the guesthouse and you would benefit a considerable grant of around 100 000 euros – while the government grants are estimated at around 15 000 to 20 000 euros – and you know pretty well that such an amount would represent a significant investment given the local materials and the fact that construction works can be done by the family members themselves.

Albanian agriculture has recorded positive growth. Albania’s agricultural exports exceeded the $300 million limit in 2018. Agricultural exports have doubled over past four years. The growth rate has been satisfactory, estimated at around 14% last year and we expect to maintain this growth rate. Although the visitor numbers went up to ambitious figures of over six million during last year, we expect the visitor number to grow to 10 million and we expect agritourism to include in this projection as part of development of the country’s tourism industry as a sector that has been non-existent to date despite its tremendous potential. It just takes eyes to see, mind to imagine and strong heart to dare and invest in this sector. Albanian government will support financially and provide technical assistance to everyone who would dare to do so. Local government authorities will also be increasingly committed to provide their support to such investment projects.

Everyone has seen the colossal changes that the city of Fier has undergone over past few years. Such changes and development will now extend towards countryside. If we are to focus on development of agritourism, guesthouses and farm accommodation units, including rural hotels, then the household economy will be fundamentally transformed within a short time, whereas the youth employment in the countryside would take another quality, because they would be able to generate higher income compared to what they could earn by taking up a job, even a high paying job in urban areas. In this way they will be able to build a future by exploiting their parents’ inheritance and all of the ancestral heritage plus the beauties that God has devoted to this area and to all of Albania.

Thank you!