Prime Minister Edi Rama continued his tour to the southern district of Fier with an open meeting with local residents at the city’s newly rehabilitated square to discuss accomplishments and the ongoing efforts to best cope with the challenges of the war.
* * *
Good evening everyone and thank you very much. It is really a special pleasure to visit Fier and be the leader of the Socialist Party. It is a pleasure that I and Fatos Nano have experienced only. Thank you very much and I am very glad we have many things to share and show today here, we have too many reasons to be motivated and at the same time we should still do a lot more, being fully confident it is up to us to deliver.
It is our goal – and we are witnessing how the agricultural exports are growing – we expect the agricultural exports to be valued at over 500 million euros by the end of this year, compared to only 120 million or 130 million euros in agricultural exports when we embarked on this path several years ago. These agricultural exports we expect to grow to over half a billion euros this year and to around one billion euros in the next ten years, are the outcome of the incredible work of local residents and farmers in the countryside. The growing exports are the outcome of the significant increase in the countryside’s capacities, the outcome of the fact that the cultivated land in Albania has doubled compared to seven or eight years ago, are the outcome of a colossal work to take irrigation water to every land plot. You already saw it for yourselves here and have already seen for yourselves the huge swathes of the barren land in various administrative units of Fier, not because people were not willing to work the land, but because the irrigation canals were blocked for decades. However, this is not reported by the media and the TV channels. They report only when any maniac commits a murder or whatever crime, which actually happens all over the world, or when individuals or small groups appear to throw their products away. They throw apples somewhere and onions elsewhere and they even pour the milk and such shows are immediately reported on the TV channels and nobody takes the trouble to also report that not far from where the apples are being thrown, there are many others who pick and even export apples. Such shows are also being fed on a daily basis by the opposition that is funded by the Russian roubles, the political group that has continuously caused so much harm to Albania and is now being totally exposed. At a time when the whole world, as well as Europe, Albania, Fier and every other city and the remotest village all over the country are directly affected by the war, the invisible, yet savage hand of the war-triggered inflation.
And while we, the government of Albania are doing whatever we can, and not whatever we would wish, to provide relief to the people, they have shown up, angrier than ever before, in a scandalous and shameful effort that treads over any human limit to incite conflict, cause unrest and even to cause bloodshed in the country.
You saw for yourselves what happened most recently. A young man died of reasons already fully clarified by the prosecutor’s office, the forensic investigators and police. However, as soon as the news was reported, without waiting for any expertise or investigation to be conducted, without waiting for any official statement by the state institutions, the huge hyena, along with other smaller hyenas showed up, calling on people to take to the streets and join in protests, claiming that the police had allegedly “killed another young man.”
Every Albanian citizen is interested that the electricity price is not increased. They wish that the inflation doesn’t increase in two-digit rates to 20% as it is gradually rising in some other countries in the region, whereas it has increased to less than 10% in Albania, because the government has kept the energy price unchanged.
They too are interested to know what will happen with their kids, the schools, students, pensioners and with everything related to daily life and let’s discuss all these. The fact is that none of you feels the effects of the energy price crisis at your homes. The electricity bill of every Albanian family, regardless of who they vote for, the government covers 80% of the electricity price, whereas the households pay only 20% of it every month and this has been the case since the crisis of the soaring energy crisis started in the international market.
Albania’s electricity generation system through the hydropower plants at their maximum quotas meets only 75% of the domestic demand, when the plants generate at their full capacity, when abundant rain falls and the dams are overflowed.
And we need access to the international market to purchase electricity and meet the demand for the remaining 25% and this is where we face catastrophic prices. But we can’t include such extremely huge prices in the electricity bill of the retired people, the Albanian families and small businesses. We all face rising commodity prices in shops and such prices would soar if we were to increase the electricity rates on small businesses, as it is the case with other countries in the region.
We are working to diversify and boost the generation capacities and huge photovoltaic parks are being built. Construction of such a park is already underway in Karavasta, and work on construction of another is expected to kick off in Spitalle, Durres, soon. We are about to start power generation by the floating power plants already docked in Vlora port, as well as the transformation of the notorious Vlora thermo power plant into a liquefied gas-fired plant. Construction of the Skavica hydro power plant is also underway. We will deliver on our promise to make Albania 100% independent in terms of energy production and supply, with the country no longer needing to purchase, but just sell electricity. However, this will take time, whereas the war is going on today and inflation is increasing now. Of course, I understand it very well that people don’t want the government to just explain and clarify on the situation, but instead they want the government to help them as they struggle to cope with the situation. This is the reason why we have indexed pensions twice. We haven’t actually done what the retired people really deserve for what they have contributed to this country. No government can do enough for the retired people, but we have done whatever we can and we will continue to do so despite the difficulties and therefore we will provide a year-end bonus for the pensioners by early December so that they can celebrate the New Year Eve without being terrified because of the inflation burden.
The university lecturers and professors have seen the highest wartime salary hike by 15%, respectively a 7% increase by the government, as it did with the salaries of the teachers, the police, as well as the public administration employees. Lecturers are part of a university system that enjoys its autonomy and the right to manage its own revenue and they increased their own salaries by 8% and the overall salary hike is 15%. They ask for more. I am sorry, but how can one possibly ask for such an increase amid this time of crisis. It is a significant increase, higher than the highest salary hike adopted by the government, at a time when we all need to explore ways how to do a lot more for those most in need, namely the retired people, the families under the economic welfare, the female family heads with two or three children currently treated with economic assistance. We have doubled payment for these categories and we have done best for everyone else. How come that we increase salaries for firefighters by 7%, and this is not because we don’t want to raise it by 70%, but this increase rate is what we can afford over these three months and we will raise their salaries immediately next year, as they fight against blazes.
I am not saying that the university lecturers and everyone else don’t deserve more, but things can be done based on what you can afford. And the opportunities can be created through hard work and work takes its time. Take a look at what we have done in Fier, and there are still many areas of the city that need to be rehabilitated, because nothing has been done for decades.
Undoubtedly we need to increase salaries.
We have doubled the minimum monthly salary and we will increase it again. I have called on the private sector and I reiterate my appeal to them to increase their workers’ salaries. It is time to increase the workers’ salaries. It is time to give away more from what they see as their own and their families’ profit to invest for themselves, because given the current salary level, if monthly salaries are not further increased, it would be too late tomorrow and they will regret, as they would lose other capacities.
We will raise salaries again next year. We will increase pensions next year again. We will boost the financial support next year and we very much hope that ongoing explorations discover significant oil reserves in Shpirag and it becomes a new source of revenue for the country and such a source would take Albania to a whole new level.
Thank you very much!
