Prime Minister Edi Rama’s remarks at inauguration ceremony, marking completion of the first phase of Gjirokastra’s historic old bazaar restoration project:

 

I would like to appreciate each and every one of those who joined us at this meeting and are standing on foot behind our guests of honour, or better say our friends of honour, who are the members of the Albanian – American Development Foundation, whom, I avail myself of this opportunity to thank them once again following a good and successfully done work.

Looking at this project’s result, one cannot help but think for a moment that back in 2013, when we took office, Gjirokastra was added to the List of World Heritage in Danger and Albania risked a UNESCO badge of shame for the total lack of attention and responsibility towards a cultural heritage site like this, and not only this, but also like the heritage site of Berat, which is also inscribed on the UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

Of course, having said this, I am not claiming that whatever we have done is sufficient, but there is no doubt that five years have passed since 2013, but it looks like as if a whole era has passed since then, because Gjirokastra has been removed from the UNESCO-s eminent danger list. Gjirokastra has now returned on the government’s attention with regards to its cultural heritage. The investments in Gjirokastra over the past five years exceed the investments carried out in over 20 years combined and now not only it is no longer an endangered cultural heritage site, but it has also ushered in a new era. The project jointly developed with the Albanian-American Development Foundation is a business card of this new phase.

Tourism in Gjirokastra today is no longer just a desire, but a real hope materialized in the significant tourist numbers growth and enhancement of the opportunities for the local residents to earn a living from tourism. Suffice it to mention an official data; only 6900 tourists visited Gjirokastra back in 2013, whereas today as many as 85 000 tourists have visited the Castle of Gjirokastra alone during the period from January through September.

A radical change has taken place. Only four accommodation facilities existed in Gjirokastra back in 2014, whereas today, if we are to refer to the www.booking.com, we will find out that the number of these facilities is many times higher. Their number will be much higher year by year, because we will keep on investing together with the residents living here and especially local residents who have emigrated and are now seeing for themselves that a set of ample opportunities are being created for each of them to place attention to ​​Gjirokastra’s rural area, home to a fantastic cultural heritage, an extraordinary nature,  tradition and enchanting history. By eying agritourism projects they will help the local population to transit from a survival situation to a good living situation.

The restoration of old bazaar, Gjirokastra’s most meaningful and picturesque area, I believe, marks the end of a troublesome story concerning the future of the city’s cultural heritage, just like it is merely the initial stage that will be followed with other interventions on the streets and alleys infrastructure, transformation of the entry road to the city, which currently remains a parking lot, to the construction of an access road to put an end to the traffic through the entire historic area of the city, because this is now the main challenge. It is abnormal that at a time when we are seeking to ensure this entire area is populated by tourists and visitors during a season that we should work to prolong year by year, tourists are always disturbed from the vehicles moving along this area, let alone the damage they cause to the investment we are carrying out.

I believe we will soon be able to launch the investment on constructing the access road, just like I do believe that we will soon see concrete results of the projects already underway outside the city’s small border. I am confident that a combination between the rich cultural heritage and the opportunities to go outside the city could provide us an additional instrument in our efforts to ensure this entire area’s sustainable development.

I won’t go any further in the context of the ongoing projects, or the ones we plan to launch regarding the main cultural heritage sites, which are expanding the visitors map and will also lengthen the stay of tourists in Gjirokastra, but I would like to point out that we continue working and attaching more attention to this entire space. We will try to combine Gjirokastra with Libohova, Dropull, Përmet, Tepelena, and with Memaliaj, but always relying on the Gjirokastër-Tepelena axis that offers great potential to lengthen the stay of visitors in this territory and take more advantage of the tourists’ curiosity and readiness to spend more while staying here.

I would like to appreciate – neither for formalism, nor diplomacy since everyone knows I am not a talented diplomat and I would have never become a good ambassador – Michael, the Foundation’s Board President, with whom I visited the area back in 2014 and ahead of this meeting we were recalling the time we came here to inspect the area where the project was about to be launched and with whom we have developed an extraordinary and fruitful cooperation in our efforts to transform the country and support various communities. There is a series of projects we have finalized together by joining our forces, our opinions and by co-funding many of them. I am convinced that all these projects are another reason for us to further strengthen this cooperation and as it is always the case – Michael is just smiling since he knows what I am about to say – I can’t help but ask the Foundation to allocate more funding it has provided to date.

Thank you very much everyone!