Prime Minister Edi Rama and tour operators and business community representatives discussed the promising future of local tourism sector in the southern Albanian municipality of Fier during a meeting at the Darzeze beach, one of the most beautiful natural assets in Fier, still unaffected by mass construction, and with a perspective for ambitious major investments in elite tourism projects.
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Hello everyone! We are in Fier today, with the day starting very early and we plan to go on further, yet we decided to stop over here, because it is important that we touch upon another aspect of a huge potential, but that we have failed to tackle properly because of the unexpected twist of events during our second term in office. We actually kicked off work on construction of a road leading to Seman and a series of other important infrastructure projects, but we were forced to divert funds in the wake of the devastating earthquake in November 2019.
However, we are convinced that this area will become an incredible added value for Fier and the national economy. That’s why we have taken care to design projects and implement quality urban qualification projects since we took office. The new investments really make the difference.
What matters most is the fact that Fier has an incredibly huge asset and potential for tourism development. Fier has always been designed as an industrial landlocked city. Indeed, Fier has access to the sea and its coastline boasts the largest potential for tourism development in the entire Adriatic area.
On the other hand, the combined development of photovoltaic parks, other renewable energy projects, the new agritourism businesses recently launched in the area and that needs to further promote the cultural and historic heritage sites will turn Fier into a major tourism destination, creating new jobs and more income for local families.
I mean that we would like to render another more consolidated dimension to development and that’s why work is underway on the next cultural year set to feature a rich calendar of cultural and artistic events and activities for children.
Children are the most “penalized” ones during our summer tourist season, because they spend holidays on the seaside, sunbathing and swimming in the sea only. We are seeking to do a lot more in this aspect and we will definitely do so.
The investment – if it will ever be finalized and we are convinced this will be the case – will be a massive one and another coastal area will this way host a massive investment after major investment projects already underway from the port of Saranda to the tourist port of Vlora.
The contract on construction of the new Durres port will be forwarded to Parliament in the next few days, including a series of other important deals on tourist resorts and other investment projects.
I wouldn’t go over other details concerning your daily lives and work, the energy crisis, the war-driven inflation, as we are actually intensively talking about them, but I think that one of the important reasons why a steady progress was made during this tourist season is that we kept the energy prices for the families and small businesses unchanged. A good part of the tourism economy is made up of small businesses with an annual turnover up to 140,000 euros or 140,000 million lek, which would otherwise be unable to survive.
An incredibly high number of tourism businesses in Italy were shut down because of the very high electricity price. I would like to assure you all of the government’s commitment to continue protecting households and small businesses from the rising energy prices. We are determined and we have decided to do utmost efforts so that no power shortages are applied during the upcoming winter season. Sunny weather conditions are prevailing during this time, although we wish that abundant rain falls during this period, because rain is somehow the economic fuel for the electricity. It is expected to be the toughest winter after the World War II
We imposed the 800-kWh cap in a bid to promote energy saving and make higher-income families living in large houses and living spaces with a monthly consumption over 800 kWh, well above the necessary consumption limit, pay higher rates and real electricity price, which is really high. If you are to look at the electricity bills of your families, it contains a strip showing the real price, while you actually pay the pre-crisis rates.
What matters most is that we continue to share facts and truths together and be united in facts and truths. This is not a question of uniting all Albanians behind in a single political party.
To put it clearly, this is something that has fallen upon us, as it was the case with the earthquake that hit the country, the pandemic, and we will cope with it by supporting each other and the government support for the people will be a maximum one and we will do everything because this is what the government is for. The government is not in office to simply show the bare truth, nor to tell where inflation comes from, but to demonstrate what is possible to provide relief to people.
That is why we have taken the measures already in place and that is why we will continue to take new measures under the next year’s budget. That is why we will impose an extraordinary tax on the big energy producers. There are three big electricity producers in Albania that export energy and sell it at stratospheric prices, because this is the market and no one tells them why, but they will pay more and we will impose an extraordinary tax that is applied in the EU member states and it has not been invented by us. It is an EU directive on how such a tax could be imposed; and the revenue we collect from them we will make available and distribute to the citizens in the form of support, starting with pensioners.
We have indexed pensions twice this year and the pensions are therefore increased by around 10%, but we will certainly do a lot more. To this end, we will again decide, despite the situation and despite the budgetary difficulties, a special year-end bonus for the retirees ahead of the New Year Eve and this time we will do whatever it takes to make sure that this bonus is delivered to them in early December and we will allocate more funds and relief packages as part of this shared effort under the next year’s state budget and depending on the revenues we expect to collect from the extraordinary tax I already mentioned.
Thank you very much!
