Prime Minister Edi Rama’s remarks at presentation of the Independence Museum park, part of Vlora’s radical transformation:
Hello everyone!
I am very pleased to be here in Vlora today to launch another project, part of Vlora’s transformation mosaic. A project that will provide the natural and beautiful connection between the new boulevard and the Waterfront Promenade, or Lungimare, creating a completely different and new space for local residents, the daily visitors, as well as foreign tourists who visit Vlora, providing everyone the opportunity, regardless of their age, to have more space and more interaction with each other. I am pretty sure, this park will be one of most frequented and favourite attractions.
I think this will be named as the park of the Independence House. This is actually the most important house in Albania and, unfortunately, this was a forlorn house for a very long time, although its doors should remain open to welcome as many people as possible continuously. Yet, the way it has been surrounded with palisade to disappear behind fences and kiosks has not allowed this tiny house in terms of its size, but so incredibly important from the historical point of view, become part of the assets that make Vlora a must visit destination, not simply because of the sea and sunshine, but also for its history.
The park project is undoubtedly part of the chain of projects that go beyond the narrow dimensions of a city, when it comes to its urban and architectural aspects.
I am pretty confident that it is a project that just like the Waterfront Promenade, the Skenderbej square project, just like the waterfront promenade in Himare and just like a string of many other projects, it will definitely cross the borders of our country and we will be seeing it being published on various international magazines and journals reviewing urban and architectural designs. Why not, it could also end up as part of major international competitions, just like it was the case with the Lungomare or the Skenderbej square that was awarded the best public space prize built in Europe in 2017.
I am also pleased that through this project we will be able to expand the green spaces at the heart of the city and provide a new urban opportunity to connect entire main road axis –on foot and not by car and without being forced to move and walk among cars – with the coast, as well as with what will hopefully be Vlora yachts port. This is actually not a new, but a long-standing idea. We have discussed and announced it several times here in Vlora and the plan is to move the freight port and build two functioning ports, including a tourist port that will fuel employment and local economy. It is not merely about providing an opportunity for the cruise ships to dock at the new port, but it is about having their crews constantly here, generate economic gains and create jobs, develop entire service infrastructure along the Lungomare area, precisely there, where just few years ago, as you all quite well remember, a very small number of service units were operational and where people could stay, whereas the rest was a degraded area.
It is equally important that we also rehabilitate the fishing port to provide and set standards in delivering goods. The new port will also feature a terminal for the passenger ferries.
As I speak, there are certainly individuals who write down and issue comments, saying: “Hold on! Wait a minute, you have yet to build the airport first.” Or “where is the airport?” or “I just landed in Vlora airport” or any other sort of satirical comments made by Vlora citizens and Albanians in general. Especially the ones who have never worked in their lifetime, but also many others who for 1001reasons, also understandable ones, could be angry, impatient and therefore they do not refrain from ridiculing, mocking, criticizing and suggesting that we are all the same and nothing has changed, and that the situation is even worse than it used to be previously. These are comments one can randomly hear, yet they are comments that have nothing to do with the reality. And this is not because the today’s reality in Vlora and all over Albania is not that easy for everyone, neither our transformation has succeeded in making Albania ranks second best country after Germany. We are not saying this and we don’t even pretend for this to be our objective while we are in office, and we even ever thought about it, but, on the other hand, we also face the serious problem of consistent disinformation and countless defamations and fabrications. Unfortunately, as the findings of the international surveys about the web portals and social media show that the saying “a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on” turns” turns out to be true.
The tendency to believe lies, slanders and false information to be correct is higher than the tendency to prove facts. However, the process to kick off work to build Vlora airport was suspended because of the total lockdown. The interested companies demanded that we postpone not only Vlora airport, but also all other projects. What we did was that we froze the process, which will reopen in the first week of October. Only few days remain until we resume the process right where it was suspended, so that we receive the international bids and sign the contract on construction of Vlora airport.
I would have wished this had taken place much earlier, yet the experience has shown anyone involved in designing projects and works of this kind, not only airports, but also other infrastructure projects, including roads, health and education infrastructure, may encounter unexpected and unforeseen issues, delays and other needs. And of course, that has a long way to go before the due contract is signed. Projects do not start once people see the excavators working on the ground. Projects actually begin when they are first conceived and then from idea they become concepts, and from concept they undergo designing process and then move to implementation process, from project implementation to funding, from funding to the bidding process and then to the negotiation process to sign the contract.The process then goes on with the beginning of construction work on the ground. And designing is not an easy process at all. We haven’t worked miracles, but I am very convinced that in any kind of discussion, through arguments about the quality of the projects and the standards of their implementation, no comparison line can be drawn the work done by us and the work that has been done before.No comparison line can be drawn. This can be best illustrated through the projects we have implemented all over Albania and which, despite their deficiencies, still cannot be compared with the projects implemented by previous governments. We attach extreme importance to projects. We place high importance to the project standards. This project too, the Vlora airport project and many other projects we will keep developing here in Vlora and all over Albania they all meet highest international standards in every aspect.
I am fully confident we will complete all these projects, should something else does not happen, since what happened to us with two consecutive very strong blows, namely with the earthquake that didn’t merely destroyed and devastated the property of many people, but it hit the foundations of our finances, and then with the advent of COVID, which has shaken the foundations of finance around the world, including the globe’s greatest powers and most developed nations. If the today’s pandemic were to happen, God forbid it, during the time when these people, who today speak as if landing from the Moon, were in office, I am pretty sure it would have been a catastrophe. Imagine just for a moment if COVID-19 would have found Albania with the University Hospital Centre at the state we found it when we took office and we embarked on an extremely complex process to transform the country’s biggest university hospital centre. Just imagine COVID-19 and the fight against the virus at the hospital, when one would have been unable to distinguish among doctors and patients, the patients’ relatives and who were the vegetable and fruit vendors and other goods inside the hospital’s territory. No sterilization conditions existed, whereas the minimum hygiene standards prevailed.
Despite all of these, here we are today, fortunately, the turn has already begun and very quickly and the economy, consumption and entrepreneurship are rebounding following the second blow we dealt with. We have looked at the consumption data, the contribution’s to the country’s VAT in July and August. The data actually form a V-shaped diagram with a dramatic and rapid decline, but also a rapid recovery that will take some more time, but it will certainly happen very soon. I have already stated that we will emerge from this situation within a year and next year will mark another new leap in every aspect, including the country’s economy, because we have laid solid foundations for its development.
I happen to hear people saying, why were you reminded to act right now?
It is not that we were reminded to act now. We have acted since day one. To all those claiming that we are acting just now, I would tell that we have been acting while you were asleep day and night, but increasing the state contributions for the people, scraping VAT and the profit tax on a category, namely the small business, it is not just matter of a word of mouth and it cannot be done just because this is what you wish to be done, but it can be done when the conditions are met and you can afford doing it.
Likewise, hiking the teachers’ and doctors’ salaries is a huge obligation, which has become even bigger in the context of today’s conditions we have seen for ourselves and everyone else who do not wish to see and they won’t see these conditions and what doctors in Albania are. There are certainly individual doctors and nurses and there are definitely individuals of every walk of life, who shamelessly dig into other people’s pocket, but it is exactly these doctors, it is exactly these nurses, it is precisely this health system we have rebuilt and brought up from the precipice where we found it, which is successfully coping with the shocking blow from the virus. But we can afford increasing their salaries today. And this has nothing to do with the April 25 elections. The conditions are met for us to make such a decision today, although we have to provide a massive funding to cover the reconstruction costs for thousands of homes for the quake-affected families, but their construction also takes its time. This has to do with the fact that by working hard, making steps forward and making efforts to fill the inherited holes in Albania’s economy and finance, and by increasing revenues, we can afford to announce a new pay rise for doctors and teachers.
It is difficult to speak through facts today, because once you highlight a fact, 10 lies and nonsense statements, if not one million, are told in advance. However, we keep on working and what I already said, what we are already doing and what we will be doing have nothing to do with the next general elections. We will definitely win elections, no matter whether we do all these. We will win elections because despite many people who might naturally be unhappy with us and might have been through distress, since it has not been easy at all for the families to cope with the stress we all have been through in less than a year since last November, when the devastating earthquake hit the country. People are wiser than each and every one of us.
No individual represents all people. Therefore, I would like to tell all those who claim they are the people and pretend to speak on the behalf of the people that nobody is granted the mandate to speak on the behalf of people, but people themselves who speak on the election day and will do the same again in April. People will again give God what belongs to God, and give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.
To conclude, I would like to assure everybody that we will keep working to deliver and implement important development projects in Vlora. There are still many things to be done and in the meantime we need to deliver on the major urban development projects that will generate stronger economy and more jobs. Sometimes ago, we calculated the Lungomare’s economic impact. Economic and social impact of the project on the life of the city is incredible. All these projects we are implementing are not decorating projects, they are not facades, as ignorant people like to describe them, they are not just interventions designed to ease traffic, ease walking and sightseeing. They are all translated into economic growth and they generate more revenue. I have happened to visit and see beautiful and poor countries, but I have neither seen for myself, nor have I found a picture showing an ugly but rich country. It simply doesn’t exist. Therefore, we will keep implementing such projects. We will rehabilitate the Flag Square, which currently remains a kind of a weak link in this whole chain of transformation, being located amid two sides, with the old neighbourhood on one side and the new boulevard on the other and the square should definitely renovated. The square should also be cleaned of that horrible building that is still there. Those who were born at the time when the work to construct that building begun, have become fathers by now and we won’t let them become even grandfathers so that its construction completes, although it won’t and there is no reason for that building to ever complete, because it meets no standards of whatsoever when it comes to a city we are seeking to make it one of the Mediterranean’s most beautiful cities. Our ambition is to make Vlora one of most intensive tourist destinations in the Mediterranean, with a longer tourist season, more services and more attractions. And of course, our ambition is to make this city wealthier as more revenues will be generated thanks to these projects. We also need to go on with the next phase of the project to rehabilitate the historic neighbourhood, but also press ahead with more projects to upgrade infrastructure of other areas of the city. The area beyond the city is considered part of Vlora too and this is not just because that Vlora villages are populated by people who need services, but because the area is a huge still unexplored and economically untapped assed. They are now claiming that we have suspended projects since we, according to them, are not willing to build a bridge there and stuff like this. These are all nonsense. We will deliver on all our pledges, yet we will do so based on our opportunities and we will do them according to best international standards, not just the roads the previous government built. Few days ago, we were going over the official data. The previous government has actually a lot of tenders on roads construction, but everything gas remained on papers, while dirty tender procedures have been applied and therefore not only the roads were never built, but previous government has also failed to settle the arrears to private companies for a majority of the projects. The arrears were settled later once we took office. A government cannot build roads by simply holding a tender and then play the drums and cut the ribbons to inaugurate imaginary roads. A government doesn’t build roads just by providing indulgence, both left and right, and claiming that this and that has completed. No, nothing was complete. A project completes when it really completes and not when someone claims so.
We will also go on with projects in further areas. We will soon launch the project across the “Uji i Ftohte” area to move then to Radhime and beyond where the Vlora bypass road descends. The work to construct Vlora bypass road is progressing rapidly now once we solved the issues concerning expropriation and other problems stemming from a scandalous design that was done from scratch, and where the road will open to connect it with the Llogara tunnel.
As far as the construction of the Llogara tunnel is concerned, I believe everyone has already taken notice of its stages, with the projects competition already over and we are pretty convinced – I will refrain from setting a date or a deadline because everything could change for unforeseen reasons – but I am confident that the work to construct the tunnel will begin in the first half of next year. However, the entire area connecting the Uji i Ftohte area and Orikum, traversing Rradhime, will be all reconstructed to become an area where not only those who currently run businesses and have their own homes there, but many others will certainly invest there to have opportunities and a much greater attractive power, because we want Vlora to become a city visited by millions of tourists in the next 10 years. And it is impossible for the Lungomare, the Flag Square to host and accommodate the growing number of tourists, but this will be the case with the entire area with Vlora at its heart.
This is more or less what we have in mind. I am very grateful that we have succeeded in completing these projects, which wouldn’t have completed unless many other people were involved and provided their contribution. Since you mentioned the upcoming elections, in order for you not to speculate that I won’t present my candidacy to represent Vlora. I don’t want you speculate about this. You could well say, we didn’t spread such speculations, we just heard them. Be careful about what you hear, because one happens to hear everything in Albania today. You can merely switch on TV and you would here everything, without being sure about what to believe and what not and instead they just cut it short and believe everything without attempting to verify and find out the truth.
I have been in Vlora before I became the leader of the Socialist Party. I have been in Vlora also after I became the leader of the Socialist Party. I am now in Vlora as a Prime Minister. I will be in Vlora as long as I will serve as Prime Minister and I will be in Vlora even once I would no longer serve as Prime Minister. I would even stay much longer in Vlora then, because I will have a lot more free time to travel to every corner of Albania, because I would go mad when some tell me to go out and see the reality for myself. The ones who tell me to go out and see the reality for myself, they actually are losers as they have never travelled all over Albania just like I have done many times. I’d very much like walk around Vlora, because it is the destiny, my family history and endless love for this still unexplored beauty connect me with Vlora. we are all here to fight and explore this beauty not only for ourselves and our children, but for the entire world so that becomes a famous and highly-sought destination for visitors to experience the nature’s stunning beauty, hospitalities and the values we have created together. We are here to continue Vlora’s rebirth to the end. Thank you!
