Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama at the signing ceremony of the agreement with the Japan International Cooperation Agency:

 

Since 1930, when the first Trade Agreement between Albania and Japan was signed, the Japanese government has been, whenever it was possible throughout this period, a reliable partner that has supported us, and has always been willing to positively influence developments in our country.

The official assistance to development that Albania has benefited from the Japanese government exceeds 200 million Euros, and it ranks Japan among the leading countries that have directly helped our country, especially in the period after the fall of the communist regime.

In addition, the opening of the Embassy of Japan to Tirana on 1 January this year, is a significant expression of the fact that, despite the unparalleled dimensions perhaps in every aspect between Japan and Albania, Japan and the Japanese government pay respect and have a really generous approach to Albania and to the Albanian people. It has been since ever my conviction and our conviction that it is up to us to deepen this cooperation, and it is up to us to absorb more contribution from Japan, by being able to submit the right ideas and reliable projects.

I don’t exaggerate at all when I say that this is a fantastic project. This is a project that allows us to set a separation barrier between now and a quarter of century of confusion, disorder, conflicts in all areas of property rights, which have been among others, a result of the lack of an integrated and reliable information about property in the territory.

There are endless pieces of evidence about the victims of this chaos, but let me bring to your attention the witness of a family who lost their property in court because the map showing the area where the property of this family is located, was a hole. It is about maps on paper which have been used and reused, folded and refolded, then opened and reopened, and as a consequence they have holes.

The property of this family was lost in one of these holes. The court decision states: “The Court cannot decide on the property in question, since it is located in the hole of the map.”

There are endless examples also of loss of information about the underground infrastructure of this country. It hasn’t occurred a few times that an excavator has started works for a public or private investment, and it has damaged the underground infrastructure (wires, cables, networks) because there is no information about what lies below. All the information inherited in 1990 has been destroyed and confused by investments after investments to do and redo the maps, and to do and redo registrations that have brought major conflicts among the families, among the owners, in terms of properties overlapping.

There are thousands of cases today when some owners have a state document signed and sealed, showing that the property is located in “x” place, and that the property is theirs, while some other owners have another signed and sealed document showing that the same property located in the same place is instead theirs. Who can figure this out?

This can be figured out only by this new and modern system which is based on a process that we began back in the early days of air photographing of the entire territory of the Republic, and which continues with a thorough scanning of all the elements in this area, and through this project, it is included in the digital inventory where everything will be in place, and where everyone, ranging from families, companies, local units to state agencies can find what they need in order to perform their duties or to meet their needs.

There is no doubt that we had better start this process long ago. We had better avoid endless conflicts and damages caused to individuals or to the state, by building up this cadastre which does not simply consist in inputting data, but is an instrument available to everyone.

This cadastre, which will contain all the buildings, roads and other works of infrastructure, underground infrastructure, cultural monuments, protected areas, territories where investments are made, the volumes of investments and so on, will make of us a people who live in a state. After all, what state is that which has no inventory either of how many people live on its territory, or of where these people live, what properties are there on its territory, what natural assets and culture heritage are there on its own territory? It can be called anything but a state! Thinking and saying that you have a state, when you don’t have any inventory, is the same as saying that you own a house but you have no information about where it is located, how it is and why it is there, what it has and so on. This is a gigantic steps on the path to statehood.

What I want to underline with regard to the Japanese assistance, it is not the financial aspect, which is very important, but it is the know-how. Japan is one of the most spectacular examples of what a people can do through knowledge, in a territory where God or nature have not been very generous. I’ve heard that on the first day at school, children in Japan are told: “The country lacks this and that” – listing everything it is missing in terms of natural assets – “and therefore every Japanese must be rich here [in the mind] because if we are rich in knowledge, we will be able to do anything”. I do not know if this is true, but even if it is not, it has been beautifully made up.

If we are here poor in knowledge, but have amazing water sources, a fantastic geographical location, oil, gas, minerals, have fantastic woods and an amazing climate that allows us to have a fantastic agriculture, we are eventually poor. And we destroy with our own hands all this wealth God or nature has provided us because what we lack here is what makes the difference between “developed” and “developing” countries and states.

“Developed” and “developing” countries and states do not differ from what they have, but from what they know. You don’t have, although you could, because you don’t know. You shouldn’t have but you do have, because you know.

The Japanese assistance is very precious because it brings knowledge. In addition to funds, it brings a fantastic culture of looking at things, and of how you can “make a flea sweat off the lard”. I do not know how this could be translated into Japanese, but the meaning is pretty clear.

It only remains for me to offer my sincere thanks to our friends from Japan, expressing them a not formal gratitude and consideration. This is a country where there are many partners, many donors, but where not all donors are able to do a lot with very little. There are donors who do very little, despite having a lot. The Japanese are donors who do a lot with very little. With even more, they will be able to do much more.

It is up to us to live up to this partnership, to be reliable, to be able to preserve this miracle of God or nature called Albania, as a very strong reason to have people return here, and not destroy it in the eyes of our friends and partners due to the ignorance, rudeness and incompetence that, very often throughout these years and in the history of this country, have made us miss chances, lose opportunities, lose friends and partners, and lose the ties with the world – as it happened for 50 years at a time to which we don’t want to return anymore for thousand and one reasons, but also because Japan was seen here in a very bad light back then.

Many thanks!

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JICA, the Japanese International Cooperation Agency and the Albanian government signed today an agreement to implement the project for Geospatial information and sustainable development of the territory in the Tirana-Durres area. The signing ceremony took place in the Hall of Maps in the Prime Ministry, and was attended by Prime Minister Edi Rama.

Tirana has had a tremendous development both urban and in terms of the population in recent decades. Services such as the development of the necessary infrastructure, services for the administration of the territory, including the construction of housing, water supply and sanitation, waste management and public transport, require development on well-studied planning.

The main objective of this project is to enhance activities in view of the social and economic development of the Tirana-Durres area, through the use of large-scale digital topographic maps. The project aims to develop also the capacities of the State Authority for Geospatial Information (ASIG), in order to produce precise large-scale topographic maps.

JICA is present in different fields in Albania. The sectors where JICA is currently focused include environmental protection, the development of local industries and of the private sector, and the promotion of tourism.