The iconic Kruja Bazaar remains one of the main attractions for visitors every season in the town of Kruja. Though the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the number of international tourists for a year now, local sightseers are constantly visiting the old and fascinating marketplace, where tradition is beautifully embodied in masterfully-made products from the renowned local craftsmen. Prime Minister Edi Rama today visited the weaving workshop where some of the town’s most talented and handy women produce traditional carpets to discuss performance and perspective of their businesses.
The carpet designs, which are showcased everywhere and offer a marriage of tradition and the modern, are the pride of the craftswomen, who wish to inherit this wonderful trade to the younger generations through a vocational education school that is most needed in Kruja.
Supporting their request regarding the inheritance of the craft to the younger generation, the Prime Minister said that young people should primarily be encouraged to engage in the craft and its future. “What matters most is that we should urge them to engage in craftsmanship, because we fail to do so by demonstrating this is a lucrative business, they would refuse to attend such a vocational education school. We should financially support young people to engage and develop skills of the trade and launch a program that goes beyond the will and passion of these women engaged in this business and promote exports of such rare traditional products,” PM Rama said.
On her part, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Milva Ekonomi underlined that the government offers significant support through grants to all of those wishing and seeking to start a business. “Government provides important support in grants ranging from 10,000 to over 400,000 euros for people seeking to preserve the craftsmanship tradition and build new crafts workshop if necessary. We have included such a measure as part of the national support scheme as we think it is really important,” she said.
Commenting on the issue, the Premier added that the government support for craftsmanship will aim to create a functioning network in all regions throughout the country, where such activities thrive. “We have launched this programme in collaboration with the European Commission, but in addition to the European Commission-funded programme we will make available a government-funded combined programme so that whole these craft workshops and these masters create a functioning network in all areas where such activities are still exercised,” the Premier said.
On their part, the craftswomen said they welcome the government’s decision to scrap profit tax on small businesses, adding the move has helped their business a lot. “What we save from the reduced taxes, we invest in plans to expand our business,” one of the women said.
The Premier highlighted the radical transformation the old Kruja Bazaar has undergone to become a true tourist attraction. “If you were to visit the bazaar just few years ago, the tile-paved area today was once was littered and untidy with rubbish. Illegal structures and kiosks were built along entire path leading to the Castle.”
Speaking about the reconstruction programme, Kruja Mayor Artur Bushi noted that the process is progressing intensively and work to construct 700 new houses is nearing completion.
“The keys to 700 new houses will be handed over to the quake-affected families soon. More than 3000 people will be accommodated in the town of Kruja alone thanks to the reconstruction programme,” Bushi said.
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PM Rama also met a group of young people, best performing high school and university students, briefly exchanging views with them on their goals and the government’s vision about the higher education system. The seniors in the final year of secondary school face the dilemma about identifying the areas of study best suited for them before enrolling in university. They said they had mulled the option of attending international universities abroad, though wishing to have been provided the opportunity to attend international universities in the country so that they can stay with their families.
“The Istanbul Technical University, where five to ten Albanian students are praised as best performing students and where an Albanian girl was declared the best performing student last year in a special ceremony, will soon open its doors here in Albania. We have start work with them. Once the issue of curricula and degree programs are tackled, I am confident that the Istanbul Technical University will open in Albania for the 2022-2023 academic year. The Istanbul Technical University is world’s renowned university for computer sciences. The challenge is to build international universities here so that the best performing students stay here with their families, without having to travel abroad so that they can enrol in such universities. There are a number of universities we are communicating with and they will open their subsidiaries here. They will be all public and non-private universities. They will be part of our public higher education system and they will apply same tuition fees and tariffs. This is our goal,” the Premier clarified.
One of the participating young people said he had launched a small business recently after the government’s decision to scrap the profit tax on small businesses. “It is not the best of time to launch a business now, but the zero tax policy helps us a lot. We hope more incentive policies are applied to the tourism sector too,” he said.
The government head voiced optimism that with the COVID-19 vaccination programme being accelerated and further expanding, we will see a more relaxed tourism season this year. “I believe this year’s tourism season will be more relaxed as we will further expand vaccination. Vaccination will minimize risk level by especially protecting the elderly. The season will be more relaxed and we will open further for a successful tourism season,” PM Rama said.
