Albanian Government Council of Ministers

Prime Minister Edi Rama’s remarks at meeting with quake-affected residents in the municipality of Shijak to unveil reconstruction project and closely explain entire reconstruction process:

 

Hello everyone!

Thank you very much for coming although being off this morning!

First of all, I don’t know whether any teacher is attending the meeting in this hall, but I would like to wish all the teachers A happy March 7!

I want to specifically tell all those teachers whose schools have been badly damaged by the earthquake that along with projects on construction new houses for the quake-affected families, projects are also being designed to construct new schools and we will of course build all damaged school buildings from scratch and make them much better and more solid than they used to be before. After all, it is our job that amid this crisis we also explore ways to turn such challenges into opportunities and do something we would not have done if the crisis was not happening. This crisis represents to us an opportunity to build now much more modern facilities, individual homes, apartment buildings, schools, kindergartens, nursery schools and hospitals.

Here in Shijak we find a meaningful example of what I am saying, but I would like first to express a special thanks to those who have been working on the project since day one, because people really need to move into the new homes immediately, but to build the house there is a lot of prep work before laying the foundations. Hundreds of people are involved in this prep work; people throughout our public administration tasked with handling the property issues, building insurance, geology, urban planning, as well also many architects who have been willing to start work since day one, without expecting to have a contract and without expecting to be paid.

What I find the best part about this all is the fact that we have been assisted by very experienced and highly-talented international friends and architects, who have been willing to come and assist us. That’s why I would invite to appear in front of you and jointly welcome with a strong applause Francesco, an architect coming from Italy. I am not going to shake hands with him, because he comes from Italy and you may never know. And perhaps I didn’t set a pedagogical example regarding the handshaking, but, on the other hand, I am frankly not happy at all with all this news bombardment campaign people are going through about the coronavirus from all sides, which of course is a problem and a matter of great concern for us and the whole world. Big and great powers are struggling to tackle the outbreak, but what is certain is that besides the outbreak that involves a lot of costs and many unknown, there is another epidemic, that of the so-called infodemics and the fake news, unscientific comments, which greatly increase panic, anxiety, and greatly increase insecurity among people. All of this, also based on the daily instructions recommended by the World Health Organization, does not help, but hampers the efforts to cope with this outbreak. What I take the opportunity to reiterate is that of course we have to show utmost caution, we have to be rational in all contacts, and that’s why I said handshaking was not very pedagogical, for it is neither a matter of bravery nor a matter of ignoring, but it is about health safety issues for everyone and to be careful, we should follow the official resources step by step.

No cases have been detected in Albania to date. The infodemic sources offer fake stories that pose a psychological threat to people, but, as you all already know, there are, especially here in Albania, certain sources intentionally seeking to spread panic, hoping to trigger chaos and unrest and wishing for the people to start losing reason and  take to the streets. You know quite well who and why is fuelling such sources that especially most recently have sought to convince people that the outbreak has arrived in the country, but we have concealed it and stuff like that. None of this is true and moreover it is impossible for us to hit something like this, because we are part of the entire daily coordinated network with the WHO. So may it never arrive here, but we have made all our preparations. If it happens, we’ll tackle it.

Most importantly, we should all follow every instruction and advice recommended by official sources and refuse to refer to the efforts, or even the outcomes of the irresponsible media, or shameful and scandalous episodes like the yesterday’s episode, when someone was calling the head of a health care centre whether the centre had or hadn’t alcohol supplies. This is a sign of great irresponsibility influencing the people’s psychology and has nothing to do with the reality, despite the problems here and there. When France, not only an economic superpower, but also a country with a leading health system in the world in terms of its organization and efficiency, is forced to confiscate the face masks from everyone, despite the public uproar, because official sources say that face masks are all to no avail. The face masks are a must for the health personnel serving people, or the coronavirus patients in order to prevent the spread of the virus, but it is not an indispensable thing to everyone. Just imagine what can and how many things can take place here, if we were not cautious enough to distinguish between what is an infodemic virus and what is the truth.

Going back to the reason why we gathered here, I can tell you we are continuing our intense work, although this is the least visible part of our daily work. You and other people may rightly say: “We have seen a lot of this stuff and we want now see the construction company show up and kick off work on the site.” But before the work starts, a plan should be in place first, a project should be designed first and we have done it in a record time. We have employed a large number of people, because developing such a plan and project on construction so many apartment buildings would take at least six months’ time, but we won’t wait for six months. It is clear and our intention is to make sure that families that have lost their individual homes in rural or suburban areas, and who currently live in rented houses or in tents, celebrate the next New Year’s Eve in their new home. That’s our goal and probably not everyone, but at least 4,000 families will move into their new houses by December 31. Then there is another small group of families that will be able to move into their new homes probably only few months later, but we will do our utmost to make sure that all those we have registered today, who have applied, have been confirmed and verified, move into new homes.

Meanwhile constructing the new apartment buildings will naturally take a little more time and patience, because – as the plan clearly reveals – it is not about repairing, or constructing them as they used to be built in the past. I have personally visited the area few days after the Nov 26 earthquake and I have walked along Shijak’s main thoroughfare. The old buildings along the road were badly damaged. Even if they were repairable, we cannot afford letting our children live in those homes, even if they do not risk collapse. They will all be built from scratch and the majority of the apartments, which most families will be eligible to benefit, are homes that they wouldn’t be able to purchase in the real estate market. Not only will they be apartments that most of you cannot afford, but they will be granted for free, and you will not pay a single penny.

We have looked into other reconstruction programs and I can say this is an atypical one. Italy has experienced a series of earthquake. You know this pretty well, because of this area’s relations with the neighbouring Italy because of the emigrants.  There are still people living in caravans waiting for their new homes to be built 10 years after the earthquake in Italy let alone the fact that new house is granted for free in Italy. The government there grants only a part of the sum needed for the house construction and the rest is a bank loan. We will do it properly, according to us, because it is morally wrong to tell people we are building the houses for you, but you will settle the loan in the next 20 or 30 years. This is impossible, just like we can’t tell the families in rural areas that they have to pay for their houses to be built.

On the other hand, we also believe the reconstruction program represents a great opportunity to give a fresh impetus to the country’s economy. If the Urban Renaissance program changed the face of Shijak town, becoming more attractive with its newly renovated main square and several streets, the new Reconstruction Program will turn Shijak into a most sought destination to visit and an attraction of the tourism season just for a simple reason, because it will be a completely different town. Indeed, around 90%  of the existing apartment buildings will be rebuilt from scratch, so that the commercial premises, bars and cafes, restaurants and other service facilities will be given completely different quality, whereas your family members living and working abroad will invest in various projects. How can one invest in those old apartment buildings by removing windows and adapting them to serve as shops! Therefore, many tourists will naturally visit the area to spend an afternoon or an evening.

It may now sound like a fairytale, because I tell a lot of such things which are daydreams, but which then gradually come true, although others still claim these are fairytales. Every daydream may come true if you have the strong will to pursue and sacrifice to deliver and accomplish. Otherwise you would not imagine. That’s what they used to say about Belsh, when I told them it would become a tourist town. Not only those who have the habit of saying only bad things, but those who were part of this endeavour, used to say this is an exaggeration. Today, Belshi is a tourist town, thanks to all the interventions we have made. The same goes about Puka when I said that we should develop tourism in the northern town. This sounded as an electoral speech to everyone but Puka is a tourist town today. I can go on with providing more examples and projects that just have been launched and which will generate more revenue from tourism.

To us, the Reconstruction Program doesn’t simply imply a post-earthquake damage repairing process, but it is a platform for further economic growth for you and every benefiting family that will have an improved household economy as they will all be granted a more valuable worth property and they will have more space in terms of economic breath. The Reconstruction Program will also give a fresh impetus to the country’s growth, not only because a huge amount of money is injected in the mainstream economy, but it also represents a great financial opportunity for us to expand our investment capacities thanks to the incredible success we scored in Brussels.

You have already heard – and you have many family members living and working abroad – we are preparing a general tax and penal amnesty for the emigrants to report any unreported income and savings  the emigrants have generated through informal employment over the past 30 years and deposit this money in banking system, so that they can formalize their money and use it in future investment without fearing to transfer their savings, but certainly by excluding the proceeds of crime and by categorically excluding politicians and their families, judges and prosecutors and their family members, the State Police officers and their families, as well as high-level elected or appointed officials and their families, who stand no chance of taking of advantage of the tax pardon to launder the proceeds of crime and corruption. Every other Albanian citizen, either abroad or in the country, will be invited to deposit their money in banks and they will all be offered full guarantee based on a legislation piece due to be approved by a reinvigorated majority in Parliament so that nobody else can revoke the law, except when it turns out it is the politicians’ money or proceeds of organized crime. This will help all individuals who have savings to increase their economic capacity. It will greatly increase the ability of all families to cooperate with banks as anywhere in the world, that today there is no one who can generate savings from work in immigration, or may have unreported small or big business earnings – we know very well how it works – he can’t deposit this money in banks, because nobody would accept to do so.

Of course, the tax and penal pardon will be limited within a certain deadline and everyone should take advantage of this deadline. Whoever fails to do so and refuses to formalize his or her money once this deadline ends, he or she will not be able to say I didn’t know this when be treated equally like those being today subject of the Power of Law Operation. The government cannot offer an amnesty opportunity those possessing illegally acquired money, but should definitely offer a pardon to all those who have unreported savings generated through hard work. We can no longer go on like this and we should offer an opportunity to everyone.

This will be a strong impetus for families and will be a great opportunity for immigrants and a great contribution to Albania as well. This money will be deposited in banks, not only legally, but also under a very low bank tariff, which will also be injected in the mainstream economy again as it will be used to support investments already underway, or projects that will commence later to give the economy a new look. Economy now remains our focus. We have dealt a lot with politics, dealt with many other topics, but we have laid the groundwork for dealing only with the economy and bringing about a major economic change. I am not saying we will be second best after Germany, but a major economic change within our potential.

Work is underway on the implementation projects, or the engineering projects which take some time too, but projects and designs of the individual homes are ready and they are steel-structure houses that resists much more powerful earthquakes and buildings typically resulting in energy savings of 30 percent, so that your electricity annual bill will be cut by around 30% due to their very good thermo isolation and they come with a 70-year warranty, a much longer warranty than that of the mortar and brick-built structures. Projects are ready in terms of their implementation. While as to the implementation of the projects on construction of multi-storey apartment buildings entire engineering project is needed first and the project will then be transferred to the construction companies.

In all cases, it is important that it does not take too long and you will see work commencing in all construction projects and construction sites that were presented earlier here in Shijak. Shijak will be the largest reconstruction site, as rebuilding practically affects entire town. All old apartment buildings will be demolished and a completely different thing will be built on their site. It will be a completely different town. When I tell you that you will no longer will know your own town, I am neither propagandizing nor telling tales, because fortunately it has nothing to do with elections or votes, but what I am telling you and what you are listening will have to be proven ahead of the election. It doesn’t matter whether all these buildings would have completed ahead of the next general elections, yet I am confident their structures would be about to complete by then.

This is my promise and don’t forget that being a two-meter tall man is more difficult than being a short man, because the latter can well tell lies and then hide, while there is hardly a place for the tall people to hide. So we will see each other again and I will be pleased to come and personally inspect the work on the construction sites.

It befell on the new mayors of the quake-affected municipalities to deal with this tough job, as it takes a lot of efforts and elements to coordinate people who should work together and be strongly motivated to develop all these plans and projects. And it is not that we Albanians excel when it comes to cooperating with each other in administration, on the contrary. I am really surprised by the correctness and fulfilment of all deadlines. You only see what happens on TV, but they appear and brief me on their work twice a week. They report to the Minister of Reconstruction every day and the reports are not just for the sake of reporting, but it is like you are entering an exam. A certain deadline is set and if failing to meet it, you have to provide reasons why?

I honestly feel pretty good we made a very good choice for the town of Shijak and that you have a mayor who not only stayed close to you constantly, but has a very practical sense in organizing the work and a man of very respectful responsibility in everything he does.

Many thanks for your patience and we will surely see you soon and sooner rather than later we will open the first construction site here in Shijak.

© Albanian Government 2022 - All rights reserved.