The new 17-km long Labinot – Mal road is one of the long-awaited infrastructure project investment, which will link a resources-rich area with potential for development with the urban centre.

Combined with many other new roads already under construction, this project will ultimately free more than 20.000 local residents from a decade-long nightmare and open up real prospect for development of agritourism sector in an area blessed with natural beauties.

Prime Minister Edi Rama today visited the central district of Elbasan, where he inspected the ongoing works to construct the new road.

The new investment has been welcomed by local residents, as rural population encountered difficulties in accessing the urban centre due to the lack of a road, the Mayor of Elbasan Gledian Llatja said.

“Local residents in two remote mountainous areas in the municipality of Elbasan lacked road infrastructure and access to the urban centre and the main national roads. The road we are inspecting now links administrative unit Labinot-Fushe with the main national road and the centre of the municipal unit. This is the first 17-km long section of the road and it serves more than 6,000 local residents, and not only, but also a number of people who have moved to the city leaving behind their land properties in the administrative unit Labinot-Mal and the surrounding villages. It is actually a long-awaited investment for the inhabitants in the remote villages of this municipal unit. The Municipality of Elbasan has carried out a number of road infrastructure investments to provide links between villages, but this has been one of the main problems in the area. The existing road will undergo rehabilitation works to meet best infrastructure standards. It is one of the best investments in the area,” Mayor Llatja said.

For the Socialist lawmaker Taulant Balla, who represents Elbasan district, noted that the new road will have direct impact on development of agritourism in the area. “This road will help agritourism develop in the area. It is a spectacular area. If we are to take into account around 15,000 residents who have moved to urban areas in Elbasan, but who spend summer months in their rural properties in this area, this is an investment serving around 20,000 people. It is a road of incredible tourism and historic values,” Balla said.

On his part, Prime Minister Rama noted that the launch of construction sites all over Albania has helped employment to increase significantly. He urged local residents to invest in agritourism projects and pledged government support to build an optimistic perspective for the area’s development.

“This is the case to point out yet another thing despite a group of people who understands but pretends not to understand, or they rather are completely unaware of what they do, but simply keep playing the same old tune, calling on government to stop work, stop investing, stop essential services like the cities’ cleaning. In fact, if we are to consider the investments as part of the post-earthquake reconstruction program only, as many as 25,000 people have been recently employed in these projects. If we are to consider this infrastructure project, where dozens of workers earn their living and provide for their families, and if we are to consider all projects already underway, we will find out that there are thousands of other people who work and provide for their families what they earn by working in these projects. If all these projects were to be called off, then all these people would have become jobless. But not only that, because the income generated through work, the income and revenue generated through investments, as it is a whole production and supply chain, would all freeze. It is actually just like the case of a family that would consume in one day the whole food they have planned for a week. And at the end of the week, that family would find itself unable to survive. But today, the number of small business employees has increased and it is higher than their number prior to the pandemic. This is a fact. These are all people registered in payrolls and employment has increased as a result of the incentives and the facilities the government provided to small business. In the meantime, around 10,000 big business workers have lost their job because of the pandemic and have yet to integrate in the labour market, but the government has prepared a special employment program for these individuals. If we are to consider it in terms of the households’ economy, I can openly say we have successfully coped with the pandemic. There is certainly always room for improvement, but there is no doubt we have coped with the pandemic with dignity. Meanwhile, we see certain countries that have already started to experience the initial cracks because of their decisions to suspend investments, whereas other countries that didn’t stop investments they have recovered easily. This is a fact and everyone should know it. As far as this and other roads are concerned, what I would like to strongly emphasize that these are roads that we have carefully looked into their development potential. It is not merely a matter of laying asphalt layers without taking into account the number of people benefiting these projects, but it is a matter of building in the areas with huge development potential. This whole area has incredible potential for development of agritourism. The new road will offer the opportunity to residents currently living and working abroad or those who have moved to urban centres so that they can return back to their private family homes and their land properties to launch a small enterprise that generates money. The emigrants who have started investing in agritourism projects by turning their private family homes into guesthouses, away from mass tourism and beaches, are bearing the fruits of their investment as they now earn a lot more than they would have earned while working abroad. In the meantime, they employ many family members, relatives and friends, who would otherwise live in poverty and through hardship. This is because livestock breeding and not mass agriculture has been the main source of living for residents in certain areas. Engaging in agriculture in remote areas is not a feasible choice. Therefore, this should be replaced with the opportunity that creates agritourism, which is a perfect sector for individuals, families and the country. Agritourism is actually a sector developed in the recent years as it didn’t exist previously. There were only a small number of operational agritourism projects, but it was us to make development of this sector a top priority. As a result, around 300 agritourism projects have been launched and they form the nucleus of a flower that should bloom with all its petals. We should have thousands of agritourism points that will be translated into thousands of small businesses in rural suburban areas, where you will no longer need to load sacks with locally grown produce and drive to the city in order to sell them, but instead it will be the consumers, the visitors and tourists who will come up here and you will be able to earn income by offering them hospitality and traditional food.”