A new chapter is beginning for digital infrastructure in Albania, with a new initiative coordinated by the Ministry of Local Government, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, and Electronic and Postal Communications Authority (AKEP) together with local government units and the municipalities of the country, aiming at the modernization of electronic communications infrastructure.

In an expanded meeting with mayors, representatives of responsible institutions, and economic operators, the plan was presented for the organization of overhead cables, the elimination of deteriorated structures, and the gradual transition toward underground infrastructure, as an important step toward more orderly and more functional cities on Albania’s path toward the European Union.

Prime Minister Rama also attended the meeting, where he assessed the initiative as a necessary process that requires coordination and shared discipline between central institutions and local government.

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Prime Minister Edi Rama:

Greetings to everyone! What is being made public today as a new and coordinated initiative by the Minister of Local Government, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, and Electronic and Postal Communications Authority (AKEP), together with the local government units, the municipalities of the country, is an initiative that comes at the right time and requires strong organization and discipline in order to be carried out successfully, for all those reasons that were stated very well by the Minister of Local Government, and on the basis that was made very clear also by the Minister of Infrastructure and Energy.

It is now entirely possible to clean our cities from all those plastic spiderweb-like wires of a time which had its own consequences during a development that was also necessary, and in fact, as the inventory carried out shows, many of these cables are non-functional. They are non-functional, but they remain there entirely as a sign of neglect and lack of attention.

Since the matters were said here as far as this problem and this initiative are concerned, I want to take the opportunity, in the presence of the mayors, to also share another initiative of a very large scale, spread across a number of directions of a strategic nature for the communities of the country, which we will publicly launch at a Local Government conference in the first ten days of July.
It concerns the new national program of Urban Renaissance 2.0, a program which is being prepared by the institutions and in dialogue with the municipalities, under the care, leadership, and supervision of the Minister of Local Government, Mr. Demo. It is a program that aims to address several elements whose time has now come to be given an exhaustive direction.

First, to address all the remaining parts of the system, that is, those remaining without investment, and there are some parts which, unlike what is thrown around and twisted in the daily negative discourse, are in fact fewer, much fewer, than the invested parts of the Water Supply and Sewerage system. Precisely for this reason, the program will address the need to make a comprehensive intervention and to provide an answer also to those remaining needs that have not yet been addressed by the still-missing segments of the overall Water Supply and Sewerage network.
Second, we will address the need to take urban and interurban transport to another level, starting from the necessary transport and, in fact, the weakest link of our new tourism industry system, which is transport during the peak season, when it becomes very difficult for tourists and visitors to move with vehicles made available by the public sector. The aim is to enter a phase where the new generation of public transport vehicles, first, will be entirely green, meaning we are talking about electric buses, which have zero pollution, something that is now a general trend in Europe, and second, to build a system for the use and administration of these vehicles under the administration of the municipalities.

So it will be the government, together with the municipalities, that will secure the vehicles, and the municipalities will administer them through a system that we have already piloted with great success in the Municipality of Dibra regarding the logistics park, which brings me to the next point: we will now extend it across the entire territory. We will have a logistics park that will serve the municipalities for all those necessary works of maintenance, cleaning, opening of drainage canals, irrigation canals, and at the same time also for all those other interventions of this nature related to post-emergency situations, so that the municipalities possess a capacity that has been missing until today.

Returning for a moment to transport, we will also launch concretely and financially support a program to create more meaningful parking capacities, especially in cities with high traffic intensity, and certainly bearing in mind here as a priority the cities and areas that are zones with a specific burden because of tourism. The parking program is a special program that has several components, which we will detail at the relevant conference and for which all municipalities will have the written program with all its components.
I want to say that for parking we have several formulas, and apart from the formula of direct financing of the work for their construction through the Development Fund and the creation of partnerships with municipalities, as we have several successful cases, I bring here the case of Berat, the case of Gjirokastra, which have extraordinarily eased these destinations that are increasingly sought after as part of our cultural heritage. There is also another formula to enable municipalities to access banks with specific parking projects, or to cooperate with private entities which will be invited to participate in cooperation in those territories within neighborhoods that they currently use for disturbing and polluting parking, and where in fact they have acquired property rights, but can engage in building a parking infrastructure that is much more profitable and at the same time much more community-friendly.
Another important element, and I want to thank some of the mayors because they have been active in cooperation with the Minister of Local Government, is the pillar related to former industrial zones. For them too, we have a clear work plan with the municipalities. The identification of former industrial zones that remain abandoned to this very day has been carried out, and we also have created models that now give us the possibility to understand how we will develop these former industrial zones.

The next component is the component of museums of local identities, and for this, work has been done so far in collecting information from the municipalities, which will have an active role in this process, because for us it is very important, given that it is very clear that our path is the path of rising to a higher level in the classification of tourist destinations. This cannot be something sustainable if we do not enrich our tourism offer, where museums of local identities are a necessity.

Meanwhile, we also have the program for extending startups into other territories, since we notice that on the one hand we have a significant increase in applications in the “Start Up Albania” program, for which we will also issue new financing in the coming days, since the quality applications have been more than what was expected based on the dynamics of recent years. But what cannot be left to free flow is the fact that the number of applications is very unbalanced between Tirana, which takes the lion’s share, and the other municipalities.
Naturally, this is also a matter of information, and it is also a matter of engagement to encourage and raise awareness among young people to look toward this program, since we know very well, and you know very well, that in all your municipalities you have very talented girls and boys who are devoted to the world of technology.

And the last, naturally not in terms of importance, are the companies. The joint companies, for which a process has begun.

We have several nuclei already created. Joint companies between local government units and farmers or entrepreneurs in the countryside, and this certainly goes in parallel also with the other program, which will begin to be open for expressions of interest, which is the “Double Your Enterprise” program.

I bring these points here because it is important that all of you engage together with the Minister to make it possible for the manifesto of Urban Renaissance 2.0, which will then be published at the national conference that we will hold between the government, local government, and other actors, to be as complete as possible, and that there everyone finds themselves with their priorities or their objectives.

In closing, the last not in terms of importance, is the necessity of a renewed engagement to take the interaction between municipalities and citizens to another level as well, by using the digital Co-Governance Platform, but also all other channels, since especially at this stage of the year you know very well that with the increase of the heavy load due to the tourist season, the needs also increase. These are related not only to the side of the municipality, which must take special care where there is a significant increase in the number of residents and of the territory for all services, but on the other hand they also bring an increase in needs on the side of the people, for all those things for which people may need public service and support from the public sector, from health issues to matters related to peace, to the safety of children, and so on.

Thank you very much for your attention and with one remark to some of the mayors. I do not want to mention them here by name, those who have become somewhat of a problem, I am saying it in this soft way, for the community, because they do not stay in the community throughout the week, but come to Tirana even on the days when they should be at the head of their duty there. It is very important that this practice comes to an end. It is not all of them, but there are some, while the example of the current Minister of Local Government, who comes from an experience of service outside Tirana, even though he had and still has his home in Tirana, is an example that some mayors should keep in mind. Today I do not want to mention them by name, but next time I will have to mention them by name and publicly, those who leave the community and leave their duty before what is in fact the official moment of rest comes, and even there this matter is debatable, and come to Tirana. This is not justifiable and it is not acceptable. I believe I have your full understanding to address this concern as soon as possible, a concern which has come to me repeatedly, for the sake of truth, from some of your communities.
Thank you very much