Prime Minister Edi Rama’s at meeting with the country mayors and prefects: 

 

Good day and welcome!

You might have already noticed that several meetings have been held over the past few days with different groups and tourism stakeholders involved in the tourist season, which it’s still going on and few more weeks to go, but we believe it is the right time to communicate, provide some conclusions and certainly discuss ways to press ahead with the good work already underway, with the cooperation with the local government authorities, I like to emphasize, playing an important role.

This year’s tourist season has been definitely significant in terms of figures and tourism revenue and the outgoing season is a meaningful indicator of what it has been accomplished, but what it can be achieved focusing our efforts on tourism sector.

Suffice it to bear in mind that Albania recorded a significant growth in the visitor numbers and the tourism industry generated nearly half a billion euros more in revenue contribution to the country’s economy compared with the previous year.

The tourism impact on the local economy has been very important too and we have noticed that a significant number of new businesses have been registered during the June and July period in particular, whereas a large number of young boys and girls – whom I would like to congratulate and encourage on the eve of the new academic year – have been actively involved and have enjoyed a very valuable working experience.

The employment rate growth by around 6%, or 6.1% to be more precise, in June as to compared with the previous month of May, is also a significant indicator. In several tourist areas, the official data, which do not include a part of the labour market still marred by informality, are also significant, with the employment registering a growth of 22% in Saranda, 7% in Vlora and Lezha.

I am also very pleased to point out that despite any inevitable shortcomings, I guess, during the tax administration inspections, there has been a significant increase in retail sales under the VAT scheme, which is translated into a significant increase in formalization of the transactions process. Saranda has again recorded a very significant increase. Durres too has a significant growth just like Vlora, Lezha, Shkodra and so on.

We face a situation where we still have a lot to learn and figure out, because what is clearly obvious through figures and what is clearly echoed in the everyday life reality in the tourism oriented areas, shows us we have plenty of room for doing the right things and actually build very strong basis of a tourism-based economy.

The increase in formalization and the increase in the number of sales invoices is certainly translated into more revenue and income for the local government units and it is definitely translated into more investment for them. On the other hand, I want to emphasize that I’m very sorry that some of the opposition mayors are not attending the today’s meeting. The mayors from the opposition Democratic Party are not present, as we are talking on a topic of common interest, there has not been and will absolutely no division of political nature in this aspect and the example of the entrepreneur in Velipoja who said that the reduction of the VAT rate to six percent from 20 percent was a great help, but on the other hand not a single road has been paved in the coastal village of Velipoja and this should be a wake-up call for the municipality of Shkodra and many other local government units across the country.

What I’m saying – taking into the account my previous experience as a Mayor, but also being fully aware of the local government needs which are larger than our potential – is that we should jointly explore the opportunities and ways to carry out continued and smart interventions and refrain from shifting investments for other purposes, be them either of a banal and electoral nature, in building a road which has not the real impact of interventions in the tourist infrastructure.

Further, I want to emphasize my commitment to continue working together in two aspects in terms of efforts to increase tourist infrastructure investments. A new water supply program will kick off soon and it will specifically focus on tourism. On the other hand, I beg you all to focus on agritourism, because – let me say this – it is impossible, unjustifiable and unacceptable that although the agritourism potential is huge and although the potential for local government revenue from agritourism is significantly high we still are forced to call off and relaunch the call for application for agritourism and provide funding and grants for the families and entrepreneurs. It is inconceivable, instead of coping with the problem of people coming and knocking on our door and complain that the grant should be bigger and that there are many applications, the problem we face was that we received no applications from your municipalities. Meanwhile, every municipality across the territory of the country have great potential for agritourism development. You all know this. Could you name a single county or municipality that are not visited by foreign tourists? Name a part of Albania that is not attractive to foreign visitors. There are no such areas. Then what?

Agritourism is a spectacular response either to combat poverty, or provide the rural areas, the communities and families living in the countryside with an opportunity to develop and improve local economy. I am talking about rural areas where development of large-scale agriculture is impossible, where large-scale exporting is impossible due to the geographical position and if famers have no access to the market then agritourism is the way to bring tourist to the farmers. So it takes no special philosophy and science to figure out this. The government is available and ready to provide its support to everyone regardless the political parties. This is the only thing we are interested in; to support agritourism applications. You should bear in mind that the second call for applications saw an improvement, but another call for applications under the European Commission’s program is set to be launched in autumn. The European Commission will provide around 75 million euros. An amount of 11 million euros is earmarked to support agritourism projects, guesthouses and hotels in rural areas. You should also inform local residents and entrepreneurs that a completely new fiscal package on agritourism has been approved imposing a six percent VAT rate only and a five percent profit tax rate. The agritourism projects are excluded from the infrastructure and the property taxes. As such this is a fantastic opportunity for the migrants to invest in agritourism in their own rural private homes and this will help us incredibly a lot.

Further on, I would like to emphasize that thanks to the cooperation with you, we have had a cleaner season, but still far away, we are far from the cleanliness we need in this country. We are still far away from achieving this goal and it is truly intolerable that we sometimes become laughable and ridiculous when it comes to cleanness. With the lessons learned during this season we will work to improve things, but I would urge mayors, especially the mayors of coastal areas where the visitor numbers increase during the summer season and it is impossible for the local government authorities and their capacities to cope with the growing influx, to show more attention and become more active also in proposing the right solutions in order to ensure a clean environment during the tourist season in particular. We are all aware this is an inherited serious problem with people throwing their garbage everywhere. But we should do our job just like we did this year.

It is also appropriate to reflect on the local and national festivals, the artistic, cultural and sports events which were this season’s novelty. Around 500 events have taken place, but a lot more can be held, including local celebrations, village holidays, community festivals according to all elements of the tradition and it is up to you to encourage, organize and then ask for our support. We are ready. But what is more important is that such festivals and events represent also an opportunity for the communities, farmers, businesses and the countryside to earn money and sell their products to tourists. Meanwhile, another element we should think about today ahead of the next tourist season is creation of traditional events just like the countless ones that take place in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and the whole Mediterranean. Events, municipality prizes in certain fields that should be awarded to local and national distinguished personalities. Such events bring people together and they can be helpful to promote the city, the municipality or the region where tradition, history and culture are promoted. We should more efforts to develop more ideas and organize better in this aspect.

I would like to conclude by reiterating the fact that we are aware of the not so small shortcomings in terms of infrastructure. The not so small deficiencies in terms of water supply. But yet, this year’s tourism season was the best one in this aspect too. It was the first ever tourist season in Durres beach where no sewage was discharged into the sea. It was the first historic season because the grand water and sewerage project has now entered an advanced stage and it has already completed in the beach area.

It was the first tourist season when a number of hotels have installed depurators to prevent sewage discharge into the sea, but many other hotels should do so. We face a serious problem with the citizens who rightfully complain over the administration of sand on the beaches in all coastal areas where the situation is intolerable, just like it was the case in Lezha with the so-called sand owners. This is an extremely ridiculous situation we will deal with. The Minister of Tourism has been tasked with filing a lawsuit against these sand owners. But similar conflicts over the administration of the sand take place in other areas of the country’s coastline too. Of course this is not an issue to be addressed by the government, although it is us the ones to receive the complaints. This issue must be handled by the local government authorities. But utmost care should be exercised in this case since clear, transparent plans should be developed in order to have a clear-cut division between what is public or private.

It would be useless to keep on stating that this season was a good and a successful one, because this is a well-known fact, but it is important to emphasize how much better it could be as compared to what it is. Concluding, I would like to invite you all to reflect on this year’s tourism season, draw your conclusions that could well be deeper than ours as you are on the ground on daily basis and forward your proposals and requirements without wasting time and well ahead of the upcoming season, despite the fact that local elections are set to be held next June. Many of you could be campaigning, others may be not, but this is not important. The preparations for the next tourist season should start as soon as possible. With the experience we have amassed, based on what we have seen, we should consolidate our accomplishments and find ways to address the shortcomings and deficiencies.

I would also like to appreciate the prefects for their work in collaboration with mayors.

I want to assure each and every one of you, regardless of your political affiliations, that we are available and the only thing we want is to do the best for each community, for each municipality and strengthen as much as we can this component of our economy, tourism, an extremely important component.

This is where my speech ends and with great attention and pleasure we are ready to listen and take into account your concerns, suggestions and things that may draw our attention.