Prime Minister Edi Rama attended a meeting with local residents in Mallakastër, southern Albanian region of Fier, focusing on the achievements and the continued effort to best cope with the challenges of war.
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Thank you very much!
I am sorry that because of the rain it was impossible for us to hold this meeting outside, in an outdoor space that was already arranged in advance, but on the other hand I am really happy that it is raining today. I am so happy today that I even declined to hold the umbrella, because our country is actually reliant on the rainwater and on the hydropower for the domestic energy generation and rainwater is desperately needed especially at this difficult moment for the energy production, not only for us, but for the whole of Europe, for the whole world and Albania is still in the process of transforming the power generation system through a series of investment projects that will somehow make up for the complete dependence on hydropower.
Before I reiterate what I have somehow said about this issue, I would like to dwell upon the olive and olive oil sector. It is true that the olive oil price is currently lower than the vegetable cooking oil in the market. But what lessons can be drawn from this situation?
First of all, let’s not forget that in spite of a huge installed production capacity we still import more than 1000 tonnes of olive oil. Why? The reason is an inertia and an inherited preference for the imported olive oil, on one hand, but also due to the fact that our olive oil production industry is still a nascent industry in its early steps and despite the government support – because supporting this sector, even the most symbolic industrial chain of this sector was out of question previously – this industry still faces certification issues and has yet to meet the required standards. So the first lesion is that this already created value should be guaranteed as it has yet to be guaranteed.
What we are seeking to do and we are ready to do is to support all the olive oil producers so that they succeed based on processes they have agreed with one another on the way how the whole process and this culture is treated and how the production is eventually harvested and certified by certainly mobilizing funds and by making available new olive oil extraction plants so that whole wonder I had the chance to see firsthand on my way to this meeting, namely the mosaic of all of those small producers is transformed into a wonderful development power locally to help all olive growers and olive oil producers grow their household economies, help local economy to grow and practically turn Mallakaster into the embodiment of development of olive oil processing and production industry. I am convinced this is totally possible, but it certainly calls for readiness and willingness of each and every one of you to join your forces with one another. It is therefore for this reason that I would beg everyone to look forward to the future together, whilst the municipality and local government authorities should assume a role to organize people, help them organize and the central government, through the Agricultural and Rural Development Agency, through the EU-funded programmes, through the guaranteed and sovereign loans, will assist you all so that this nascent industry gradually consolidates and turns into a very profitable industry.
What I would also like to note is the fact that we now witness an altered reality. However, we also witness a reality with a tremendous potential to be tapped, namely agritourism businesses that should strengthen and further expand in this whole area.
We do no longer talk about things that may happen, but we are talking about things already happening instead. The thing is that we need to multiply them. We expect the country’s agricultural exports to be valued at around $500 million by the end of this year compared to the value of $120 million when we took office. Half a billion is really a serious figure, still an insufficient one. Albania’s agricultural exports during this phase exceed the communist-era exports! In the meantime, I am really glad that we are also delivering on the 24/7 water supply project here in Mallakaster and elsewhere across the country.
Coping with the upcoming winter, expected to be the harshest one after World War II, and facing the energy crisis effects is the main ongoing debate in the wealthiest countries throughout the world. I visited Berlin last week and this was the main topic up for discussion in Germany too. Germany, a country with tremendous resources and capacities, is preparing to inject a gigantic relief package. And it is a country that can afford doing it financially. One should take into consideration the effect of the amount of EUR 460 million we have already made available to protect the Albanian families and small businesses from the rising energy in the state budget and our state coffers. It is absolutely a considerable amount we have made available to mitigate the effects of this war, as we don’t want retired people, the household consumers, the female family heads and small businesses bear the brunt of the crisis. If we were to do so, the electricity bills for all these categories would have been unbearable and your lives would have become really hard. Instead, you pay just 20% of the real electricity price, whereas 80% of it is paid by the government through the state budget.
We will keep supporting households and retirees as much as we can. The government has indexed pensions twice this year. I know this is not enough. I definitely agree. We will keep increasing pensions. Despite the budget difficulties, the government will provide the year-end bonus to the retired people in early December. We will raise wages for everyone. However, it is unacceptable that the university lecturers and the academic workers ask for more, although they have seen the highest pay rise. We can’t accept it. We can’t do that. Moreover when this is something demanded from a former intelligence officer. Did you hear them warning of staging a hunger strike if no pay hike is approved. They then called on the President to guarantee their lives. They then called for protection from the international community and eventually gave up, saying no strike will be staged at all.
How can these people possibly be university lecturers?! They do not represent the majority, but how can they possibly be university professors and lecturers?! What can they possibly teach the younger generation? However, we will overcome all of these. We overcame the earthquake and the pandemic. This is the worst of the three, but we will overcome it too. We will definitely take Albania to the height we have decided to take it and we will definitely go on supporting Mallakaster and I acknowledge you have been waiting for too long for the new road to your municipality to be built.
I very much hope I won’t have to visit Mallakaster and pledge for construction of this road again.
