The design for the new commercial Durres port, set to be built in Porto Romano area as a tripartite cooperation project between the government of Albania, the government of Kosovo and the government of North Macedonia, was unveiled by the leading Dutch company Royal Haskoning DHV, one of the world’s biggest independent, international engineering firm specializing in international engineering works on construction of ports, airports, above and underground infrastructure, energy, mining and industrial infrastructure, as well as urban and rural development projects.
Plans for the new port of Durrës at Porto Romano, and two dry ports in Prishtina, Kosovo, and North Macedonia, integrated with the Durrës-Prishtine railway, in addition to further strengthening the cooperation between the three countries, are expected to turn Durres into one of the main strategic gates of the Mediterranean economy.
An international tender for construction of Albania’s largest seaport is scheduled to be launched by beginning of next year and construction work is set to kick off within 2023
Prime Minister Edi Rama attended the project presentation ceremony and delivered a speech:
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First of all, I would like to extend my greetings to the Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti, and the North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Dimitar Kovačevski, who both were unable to attend this ceremony due to other domestic commitments. And normally in the case of Kosovo’s Prime Minister you can guess that his absence is related to the pressing domestic commitments because of the most recent tense situation in northern Kosovo, a situation in which the government of the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Kosovo enjoy full solidarity and support of our government and the Republic of Albania.
On the other hand, I would like to thank the Deputy Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Artan Grubi, and Kosovo’s Minister of Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure, Liburn Aliu for joining us at this crucial stage of the process for construction of the new commercial seaport in Durres and, moreover I think that neither our friends around this table nor the diplomatic corps representatives would take offence, because before I greet and thank all the representatives of the countries interested in this project, I would like to express special thanks and gratitude to the master behind this design, Erik Oostwegel, who has again travelled from the Netherlands and who, for the sake of truth has enlighten our way and has lead us on this path through is unique and unparalleled skills and competence that best embody the universally known experience, expertise and know-how of the Royal Haskoning firm and this makes us be entirely sure that just like the old Roman Empire-era saying that “all roads lead to Rome”, thanks to Erik the team of Dutch engineers and analysts of Royal Haskoning, all roads of the Western Balkans will lead to Durres.
Over the centuries, the coastal city of Durres has been described as “Dyrrhachium Adria e Taberna”- or the The Adriatic Tavern” and has been considered a very important crossroad also thanks to the ancient Via Egnatia, which connected the Roman Empire with the Constantinople and which turned Durres into the then most important harbour on this side of the Mediterranean, a position that Durres held until early Middle Ages and after establishment of the state of Arber.
It is our ambition that the new Durres cargo port becomes precisely the strategic crossroad of the commercial shipment of goods with the West and every other state beyond the Western side, the whole Western Balkans.
The Western Balkans, all our countries in the region that came together at the historic EU-Western Balkans Summit on December 6, stand no other chance but take the volume of their trade exchanges to a whole new level and Durres, which starting with integration of Kosovo and North Macedonia through Prishtina and Struga and further extend to other countries, will give a completely new face and totally a different capacity to handle and process new larger trade volumes.
On the other hand, this is a port that takes regional cooperation to a whole new level and it is for this reason that we launched this process in tandem, primarily with Kosovo, and just like on one side we have kicked off work on the new railway project, on the other hand the Albanian government has also financially supported the feasibility study on Prishtina’s Dry Port project, but in the meantime we have been working to convince the European Union to finally include the Corridor 8 project, which for reasons we can’t elaborate today has been frozen for decades now, and has now been granted the status part of the European infrastructure, so that we can also press ahead with the Skopje Dry Port project too.
The new commercial port, which is designed to triple processing capacities during the project’s initial phase, which is unimaginable to happen with the existing port, and to all of those who engage in an absurd and politically intentional debate and just like it is the case with every politically intentional issues, with politics distorting facts for reasons of its irrationality, we are here to tell you all today that not only we didn’t chaotically rushed to shut down the existing commercial port to build a tourist port, but the fact and the confidence that the new commercial port will be ready soon made us very confident and through the project designed to transform the existing port into a tourist port, and if we are to look at the first stage of the new tourist port set to kick off in a matter of few weeks, that phase will take place in a space that affects no commercial activity of the existing port and both projects are designed to fully combine work on construction of the new tourist harbour and the commercial port.
Another important issue is the 100% contracts guarantee with all the existing operators. Their contracts are fully guaranteed. It is all about just relocation of the activities from a site to another, but legal operations of the operators won’t be hampered.
Many have speculated about the excessive amounts allegedly totalling in billions and other surreal stories over the alleged huge costs of the port’s relocation operation “just for the sake of Arabs,” but as the company’s study clearly showed the initial phase, namely the construction of the new replacing commercial port is worth EUR 390 million, a completely reasonable amount, with 46 % of the investment value to be covered by the Albanian government and 54% of this value will be covered by the company that will win the international tender.
And as you might have already noticed, Erik mentioned “a dirty” word during his presentation, namely the public-private-partnership or PPP, which will be the case with this project too.
The PPP contracts are neither criminal actions, nor corruption formulas, but they are economic formulas, which when certainly conducted in a transparent way and in the public’s interest, they work best to the benefit of the public. But when such contracts are finalized like the one on operation of the scanning service of containers and other vehicles in all customs facilities throughout Albania, it is the public that has to pay for non-existing operations.
The new port has another dimension on which we are constantly working and contacting with NATO, namely the military part which is something completely different from the project on which work will begin soon and therefore we need to make sure that the company that will take over the port’s construction meets all the standards and the most sophisticated international criteria, making also sure that it comes from a non-hostile country to the Euro-Atlantic Alliance.
To conclude, I would like to underline that we are doing precisely what other countries have already done in turning the old port into an asset of high economic value by relocating the harbour outside the city and with it relocating goods, coal, cement, chrome, acoustic pollution and environmental pollution from the city’s centre and allowing the centre of the city experience amazing development.
The port project is projected to have an estimated annual impact of around 1.2% to 1.8% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and a project that is expected to generate around EUR 8 billion for the mainstream economy during the first decade alone.
You already come across the impressive figures provided by Erik about the new commercial port. Let’s acknowledge the fact that Royal Haskoning and Dutch experts are the best when it comes to delivering such projects, because they are the most tight-fisted in Europe and thanks to their deficiency in liberality they now enjoy the status of the most successful merchants in Europe.
The Minister already announced that a transparent forum will be held in January and it will bring together Dutch experts and Albanian authorities to explain entire project to the companies and answer to all their questions and offer valuable suggestions so that the document on the international tender is totally open, friendly and inviting document for all the companies wishing to take part in this project, the most important one for Europe’s port infrastructure in the future.
This is a port of great strategic importance for the economy and security. Let’s not forget that the port will be located adjacent to an economic zone of about 60 hectares with an interest in the port’s cargo handling and shipment operations and investments.
I would beg everyone to prepare best for the international tender and let the best win and we stand no chance of changing the winner as Dutch experts working with us on this project wouldn’t allow us to do so.
Thank you very much!
