Speech by Prime Minister Edi Rama during presentation of development projects in Durres district:

Greetings everyone!

We have come together at this meeting today as part of the public accountability tour, which includes the presentation of projects due to be developed in the 2018–2020 period. Prior to this meeting, together with the Mayor of Durres and members of the parliament we visited the Job Fair with a range of over 1047 jobs on offer with the starting pay for a job ranging from 290 thousand lek to maximum salary of over 700 to 800 thousand lek, including a series of job profiles and positions in the most vital sectors of the country’s economy  and a series of continued problems concerning the ever growing demand of the labour market for skilled workers and the lost and dying crafts and trades due to a dramatic legacy of the past 25 years, with the vocational education system being destroyed and with everyone seeking to go to the university, which offered diploma in exchange of money.

The situation has already taken a new turn as the newly established vocational education system is yielding its initial results and, as we just found out while visiting the job fair, the truth is that around 80 percent of the students attending the newly reformed vocational education system, with the vocational training taking place simultaneously in the classroom and the private companies,  will be hired by these companies, which are also offering training opportunities to students who wish to take up a career in the sectors they operate. It is a huge challenge and we are committed to keep on increasing the volume of the vocational education and training volume and guide the young boys and girls to the vocational education as a way towards full and productive employment and decent work and even start their own businesses in the process.

Ahead of the Durres visit a day ago, INSTAT released the data showing that the unemployment rate has fallen below 13 percent for the first time in 22 years. I understand all of them viewing it with scepticism and distrust, and who show a kind of aggressive reaction to the progress we are making in our efforts against unemployment, because, however the case may be, several employment and labour aspects in Albania today need to be clearly addressed in terms of the quality of the employment contracts between the employers and the employees and in terms of creating better working conditions and providing the required guarantees for workers. Likewise, it is also pretty clear that the minimum wage in Albania remain very low, but this happens not only in Albania, but in the entire region and it is related to the economy’s productivity, the capacities of our human resources and the economic and market orientation towards several sectors, or activities that take advantage of the cheap labour cost because of the often unskilled labour force.

However, on the other hand, without claiming that the economy is thriving, we should all acknowledge – and I don’t understand why some people refuse to agree – that all leading economic indicators show evidence for a turn in the country’s economy. It is a long and difficult turn, but the economy is at a turning point. Actually, the new jobless rate, which has hit its historical bottom in 22 years, reflects exactly the previous World Bank report, which highlights that Albania has made biggest progress in the fight against unemployment and job growth in the region.

Having said all of these, it is worth mentioning that the country has a huge but untapped potential to increase economic growth, increase revenue and employment. This potential is the industry tourism. Few days ago, together with Tourism and Environment Minister, Blendi Klosi, Durres Mayor Vangjush Dako and MPs, we attended the inauguration of a new five-star hotel and we also visited three other newly-built and impressive tourism facilities, which are significant signs showing that investments in tourism industry are being taken to a new level of ambitions. We visited the three recently built structures, an impressive hotel here on the coast and another further inland, and the “Horses Hill”, the first agritourism business in Albania.

These are meaningful signs of employment and revenue growth, because we are talking about structures that offer accommodation for foreign tourists, mainly from the Nordic countries. The increase in the number of Nordic tourists is an encouraging sign not only for the attractive power Albania is gradually gaining, but also for a more quality tourism industry, with us again having to work hard in terms of human resources development in order for the employees to develop skills and knowledge matching the requirements for a service quality in the entire chain of tourism services, starting from the receptionists to the kitchen and managers.

The government’s incentive policies in a bid to lure investors in developing four and five-star hotels, which generate more income from a much smaller number of tourists and ensure more employment opportunities and high-paid jobs, are producing initial results. A growing number of investors are contacting and expressing interest, while during a planned event with the Ministry of Tourism we will introduce the first group of the interested companies, which have already entered an advanced phase of their projects and they include international leading companies we couldn’t even imagined they would ever invest in Albania only a few years ago.

However, this is only one aspect. The other aspect has to do with the indispensable need to keep on improving the infrastructure.

We have already launched the project on maintaining the national road network. After so many years we finally have a serious highway maintenance project in place and we will all see that the national road network will be well maintained over the coming years. But Tirana-Durres highway is not just a road that needs to be maintained, but it needs to be reconstructed and widened. To this end, we are conducting a study due to complete by mid-July. The project is designed to reconstruct and widen the highway in order to raise speed limit and shorten the travel time between Durres and Tirana and improve safety. The project includes introduction a toll system on the existing highway and the reconstruction of a toll free and very important road segment Tirane-Ndroq-Plepa, which opens up new perspective for further development of the agritourism in an area that offers tremendous potential for the agritourism development.

Meanwhile, the standardization of the Plepa-Kavaje-Rrogozhine road, which you already know it remains a highly problematic road segment, is our objective, just like the full rehabilitation of the road linking Durres and Shijak, upgrading the Fushe Kruje-Milot-Morine motorway, as well as construction of a series of pedestrian bridges along the Thumane-Milot highway. Construction of the Kashar-Thumane highway project is also set to kick off soon. The rehabilitation package of the Tirana-Durres highway includes the construction of the new road, due to be built from scratch, linking Kashar and Rrogozhine, which will significantly shorten the distance to the Ionian coast and create a wholly new situation in terms of infrastructure, including also the reconstruction of all missing works of art in order to ensure the traffic moves at a faster pace and provide safety. The infrastructural rebirth program also includes the construction of Rrogozhine-Fier road, along with the Fier bypass, which will hopefully and finally begin in September and complete ahead of the next tourist season.

The Deputy Minister for Infrastructure pointed out the revitalization projects for Albania’s main links of the railway system. The project for rehabilitation of the Tirana-Durres rail section and the construction of a new rail link to the Tirana International Airport will begin soon, a rail link up to European standards and a very important investment that paves the way for a number of interventions in the railway infrastructure that has seen no investments for more than a quarter of a century. Another project is designed to rehabilitate rail linking Durres and Pogradec and extend further to Lin, a project which will significantly enhance capacities of the Port of Durres and its impact on the country’s economy.

Discussions are underway on construction of the terminal for the passenger cruise ships, because a large number of cruise ships visit the ports of Saranda and Durres but they don’t berth since we offer no terminal for such ships, although the cruise ship tourism is growing. So Durres will host the first terminal that will meet EU standards, just like the terminal of an airport in terms of its functions and passenger services.

In her remarks, the Deputy Health Minister highlighted the government’s program on the health care system. I believe that with the launch of work to finally alter the situation in the paediatric hospital in Durres will give us soon a completely renovated building which would offer a completely different service to the paediatric patients in a model paediatric ward. In addition to the recent supply in a series of medical equipments the regional hospital lacked for many years, I would like to draw attention that a new hospital sterilization service department has become operational at Durres hospital, which has also been supplied with all cutting-edge cutting edge surgical instruments. Around 50 thousand surgical interventions are performed annually in Albania hospitals and the latest report, which encouraged us to make the decision on a public-private-partnership contract on surgical instruments, said that half of surgical procedures end up with infections after an operation. The totally unacceptable and scandalous sterilization level of 30 to 40-year old surgical instruments and not surgeons are to blame for these postoperative infections.

The renewal of the entire sterilization system and of all surgical instruments will lead to a drastic reduction in postoperative infections. Such system has already resulted in the reduction of these infections.

The previous speakers focused on the water supply situation in Durres. I am really pleased – and trust me I rarely use the word “pleased” – but I am very pleased for the fact that the decades-long odyssey of water supply to this city and its residents will finally end by next May. Durres will have a new and modern water supply system. At the same time, we will also finally put an end to the discharge of sewage into the sea. Actually, sewages are no longer being discharged into sea along an area stretching from the Shkembi i Kavajes to here. A modern sewage and wastewater system has been already built, while a second phase of upgrading these systems is underway, significantly improving the water quality, which frankly saying it is disturbing when thinking about the quality of water it has been used by millions of holidaymakers over the past 20 plus years.

However, I would also like to focus on the transformations that have taken place in the Municipality of Durres. I am hopeful that the politically organized masquerade through some charlatans, who call themselves environmentalists, to block one of the projects I am confident that whoever has objected it will blush with shame once the ‘Veliera’ Durres project completes. The project represents one those interventions that transform not only an area, but the image of an entire city and I am looking forward to seeing this masquerade ends as soon as possible and the work resumes in order to ensure that the Veliera completes ahead of next tourism season and veil-like square be there not only as a transformed area in terms of environment or road traffic, but as a magnet attracting every visitor to the city.

I am really sorry for what has already happened! It is to their shame, everyone who orchestrated, including those who joined with them in the so-called justice system, obstructing, blocking, disregarding deadlines, involving in a shameful story, typical as many other stories are, not only in Albania, but in other countries too where an innovation, something that breaks with the past and opens a window to the future. These are people who protest everywhere, just like they did against the park and the playground in Tirana, and who put their mask by putting on a hat or spectacles whenever accompanying their kids in the park.

It is the same people who objected the transformation of the national stadium from a collective toilet into one of the Europe’s most beautiful football stadiums.

We want to complete the Veliera project. We are seeking to transform the coastal promenade in Durres and built it up to the same quality standards of the Lungomare, Vlora Waterfront project, or Himara promenade, and it is completely possible to create a completely new energy between the Veliera from the entrance to the end of the promenade and extend further to the terminal of passenger cruise ships.

Should the Veliera project had completed, Albania would have had not three, but four finalists for the grand European Prize for best Urban Public Space in 2017. Albania’s nominations for the prize included the Skenderbej Square, the Vlora Lungomaree, and the coastal promenade of the town of Himara. We should have had four finalists. There were 470 European and Western cities and new EU member states taking part in the competition and Albania was the only country represented by three finalists. And one should imagine that the three projects, namely the Skenderbej Square, the Lungomare and the Himara promenade have been all objected and cursed by the organizers of these masquerades allegedly protecting the national identity and turn a blind eye whenever seeing the sewage flowing on to the roads, when seeing ruins and destruction, but protest and come together to object whenever a new transforming project is introduced.

Likewise, this year we will implement rehabilitation and revitalization project for a residential bloc near the area of Shkembi i Kavajes. The project will radically transform the area and it will serve as a model to be applied along the entire Durres coast, rehabilitation of roads, lighting, sanitation etc.

Speaking of hygiene, I would like to conclude focusing on this topic. We have pledged to close the dumpsite in Porto Romano, an environmental and ecological nightmare. It has historically been like that, but it was far from the residential areas as Durres has kept expanding and that apocalypse-like setting will be closed hopefully by next September and become a big park and recreational public space for kids and the elderly. At the same time, we will ensure that the Durres urban waste be treated at Tirana waste treatment plant.

Of course this is a matter of calculations and costs, but the day-to-day cost due to the damages to the environment and the health of the population is much higher. We visited the site today and saw for ourselves that apocalyptical like carnage and it is horrible when thinking about what we are doing to this country for more than 20 years; this country we owe to our children.

We are mulling a radical decision to make Albania the first country in Europe, but not in the world, strictly banning the use of plastic bags of any kind, not only domestically, but also plastic bags that may enter the country through the airport, port and the border crossing points. Any passenger entering the Albanian territory won’t be allowed to bring plastic bags in. It is a difficult, but necessary decision that has been already made by poor and developed countries alike. Such a decision has been made by Ruanda following the horror of genocide and at the height of poverty,  but the country’s tourism is now experiencing an exponential growth. Such a decision has been made by Canada, Quebec, Kenya and the Los Angeles too. This is the only way and we will make a decision in coming weeks. We will announce the decision publicly and allow sufficient time for the people to prepare and get used to a new way of living whenever shopping. Plastic bags should disappear from this country for good.

The idea to educate and raise public awareness by developing projects along with the civil society organizations, and benefit funding here and there to host workshops, conferences and training programs over the past 30 years has led to nowhere and it would also lead us to nowhere in the next 20 years if we fail to move quickly and cut this Gordian knot, which is suffocating our children and risks to further degrade water and land year after year.

The pollution and toxic waste that dumpsite produces are much higher in the underground waters and the agricultural land around the area and their cost are inestimable.

We should do this, because if we don’t, then there is no one else in this country to do so. We are not the best, however no one is better than us today and no one will be for many years to come.

Thank you very much!