Prime Minister Edi Rama remarks at meeting with tour operators and lifeguards in Vlora:

 

First of all, would like to express my deepest respect and appreciation to the only girl in the army of male lifeguards, who joined the team that became for the first time operational in organized way to save the people’s lives and prevent drowning incidents. I would also like to appreciate all those who assisted people as lifeguards during this season.

Thank you very much for great human acts you have committed risking your own lives in certain cases and helping us to address an old inherited issue of the avoidable drowning accidents. It is of course an inevitable accident when a holidaymaker suffers a heart attack on immersion in water, but it is completely avoidable when someone needs help when in water.

Of course the good news does not make the headlines, but the bad ones do, not only here in Albania, but everywhere, but it is important for us to emphasize today that this year’s season was the cleanest, the safest and most diverse season ever in Albania. This season also saw the highest growth in visitor numbers as compared to the previous years. Actually, we expect the visitor numbers to increase to around six million by the end of year, a significant figure, but yet not sufficiently high considering what we really need and our country’s economy needs, but still it is a meaningful expression of the progress we have already made. Of course, when I say it was the cleanest season, it is so as to compared to ourselves and the previous tourist seasons and not compared to other countries. It is from dirty to less dirty. It is not a comparison from clean to cleaner. Of course, a lot remain to be done, but this season was cleaner thanks to a greater commitment.

We are working for four years now on the sanitary landfill project for the whole district of Vlora. But why it took four years? Because we have put in the application. We have completed the application procedures with the German government-owned Development Bank, KfW, which provides funding for such projects, and we have received the bank’s approval. It is a process and a procedure that takes time and it is not a Facebook comment. Major projects do not commence when the ground-breaking ceremony is held, but they take designing process and long procedures of competitions, contract signing and so on and so forth. However, the works on construction of the sanitary landfill will kick off hopefully ahead of the next year’s tourist season and it is an important project with an immense practical application which would ensure an improved level of air and water quality and ultimately tackle the waste treatment in the whole southern region of Vlora, where waste are collected and treated in a primitive way. This is a fact.

Meanwhile, work has completed on construction of the sanitary landfill in Vajkal and the problem we currently face is to strengthen the local government capacities to cope with the daily cleaning during the tourist season. We are aware and everyone should know that the municipalities are unable to address this issue on their own, because the number of visitors multiplies and increases tenfold during the high tourist season. The Municipality of Himara collects revenue from the cleaning tariff which is at a minimum rate and it cannot cope with the situation on its own during the season.

Secondly, as for the cleanness, it is important to reiterate that the main problem it is us. After all, it is not the structures and infrastructure to be blamed.

It is us – the fervent patriots ready to put a foreign flag in fire or ready to walk on foot with a beer bottle in hand and gather at the Skanderbeg square every time the national football team wins a game – to be blamed. It is us the ones who throw garbage wherever possible just to get rid of them. This is the biggest betrayal one can commit against his own homeland. It is quite easy to talk big about your homeland, but it turns out to be not that easy to drop litter all over the country.

With regards to security and public order, I would like to underlined that everyone cannot help but be deeply shocked and worried when an appalling massacre like the one in Selenica takes place and there is no doubt that any murder is bad news and a case for concern. But, when looking back at our past, no comparison can be drawn as far as security is concerned. However, drawing comparison is becoming increasingly unnecessary.

Of course a lot remains to be done in this aspect considering our challenges and goals. There are certainly security elements that need to improve, starting with the road traffic control. We need to usher in a new stage and preparations are already underway to introduce the application of a digital system for the traffic control and the fines the traffic officers impose for traffic rule violations. State Police have also boosted efficiency and prevention capabilities, but prevention of criminal acts goes unreported and there is no reason to comment on.

As for the diversity of the tourist season, more than 500 cultural, artistic and sport events have taken place all over the country, providing an opportunity to tourists and holidaymakers to entertain with their families and children. We shall do more in this respect. The Opera ensemble had never performed outside Tirana and we started breaking this tradition, making sure that the Opera ensemble perform for the first time at open-air shows at the seaside, attracting and bringing together a lot of holidaymakers and art-lovers and I have received very positive feedback from foreigners about this initiative. Similar shows have been staged by the Puppet Theatre, while various festivals and concert have taken place along with events and visits celebrating the country’s cultural heritage and promote historical and cultural tourism. Suffice it to say that the visitor numbers to Butrint archaeological site alone has increased significantly.

What we have already done are a motivation, but a lot remain to be done in the future. We need to do a lot more and being here in Vlora, projects are underway to turn entire coastal stretch within the city into a popular and frequented beach during the whole summer season. But first we should immediately launch the investment to ultimately put an end to the discharge of untreated sewage out at sea and carry out a series of interventions in the water supply and sewerage system along the entire Ionian coastline.

An important project and program have been already developed and will kick off hopefully this autumn and the water supply situation and sewage treatment will gradually improve. Meanwhile, the power supply is no longer a problem. I remember that the power outages were a major problem during the first two years of our first term in office. I used to receive countless complaints over the problems with the power supply at that time. Most recently I visited the town of Lezha and I was told that that only a 20-minute power outage had occurred due to inclement weather during the tourist season. No major faults and defects have been reported, especially in areas where power system investments have been carried out. Of course more investments should be made in this regard. An important investment in Orikum power substation will be made to complete the cycle of investments along this stretch of the southern coastline.

The Lungomare extension project will kick off soon stretching to the tunnel, where an absurd situation currently prevails. The project will extend further on to Orikum in a bid to transform the entire coastal stretch of Radhima into a pedestrian promenade, creating a mini bypass, another new seven-km-long road, if not wrong, in order to turn the existing segment into a pedestrian road just like the Vlora waterfront promenade, or Lungomare.

At the same time, we will carry on with the construction of the Orikum-Llogara road that will connect with the new Vlora Bypass road. A new road will also link the area of Kuç village with the coastal town of Himara and it will stretch further on to Nivica to provide local farmers with access to the national road. Work will also continue on construction of other segments of Vlora River road, but again the road will be built under a foreign funding and it takes a series of complex procedures, but the tender procedures for two other road segments have already completed and work will kick off soon.

We are in a process of negotiations on Vlora airport project. Unlike what it was propagated, it is not a closed deal yet. It is a difficult negotiation because we want to get the most out of it in the public interest and the state. However, we remain hopeful that negotiations will conclude soon and work on construction of the Vlora airport will begin shortly after. But it is then when the real challenge begins as the influx of people will grow significantly and the service needs will grow incredibly. Let’s be realistic. We have a lot to do in this regard. A lot of wrong investments have been made over the past 20 or so years; many houses, villas and apartment houses have been built and already sold. But a very few number of genuine hotels and authentic tourist villas, not individual villas, have been built during this time.

This is the challenge we have to cope with and I believe we will deal with it successfully.

Of course I am fully aware that as we talk a series of comments on the Fier Bypass road project are underway. Fier Bypass has been a catastrophic legend of incompetence, irresponsibility and corruption. A previous contract on construction of this infrastructure project has been terminated. We had to terminate the contract and do everything from scratch in cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The process has already complete and we will hopefully receive a final response from EBRD in the next few weeks. The contract will be then signed and the Bypass will open to the traffic ahead of next tourist season, although may be not fully complete, but still passable. In this way, the entire road network connection with Vlora will complete. Then the construction of the Kashar-Rrogozhine will begin, shortening the travel time between Tirana and Vlora to 55 minutes only.

So, the new boulevard will be another added value. The project is set to complete ahead of the next tourist season and it will be another Longomare waterfront promenade-like project for which we have received and receive repeatedly many encouraging and positive messages.

Thank you all for all your contributions!