Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama in Elbasan, where the first ownership certificates for agricultural land were distributed:

 

Hello to everyone!

Thank you for being here. It’s a very important moment for your families, but a very important moment also for us in our relationship with you in this area, where we are showing our seriousness in fulfilling the commitments we took in front of you, thus deserving, I believe, the investment you made in entrusting us with the task of ruling the country.

Before coming here, we visited together with the mayor one of the segments where irrigation is back after more than 20 years, and where 1800 families who until yesterday were unable to work their land for production and live by honest work through it, will be able to work the land starting from this season. There are hundreds of thousands of kilometres of irrigation canals that are being functional for the first time after more than 20 years, thanks to the greatest financial package support to families in the countryside that the government has made available to the new municipalities this year.

In parallel with this major operation to expand the area of arable land, by taking there water which is vital for arable land, we launched this year a Guarantee Fund for lending to farmers through commercial banks in cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, to make sure that whoever wants to invest more in their own farm, or join others to expand the surface and to enhance the productive capacity, can benefit from commercial banks loans with very favourable interest rates than commercial interests. 300 million Euros have been made available to funding over a period of three years through lending to production.

We are building and will open in late June, the first 5 consultation offices for farmers, where advice will be provided on how to write a project, on how to apply for funding, etc. It will be the government, through ARDA, that will mediate with the banks. But these and other things remain without a thorough supporting base, if we don’t have the land ownership.

You have been witnessing for more than 20 years the bitter truth of a land area that today is yours, and tomorrow it is not. A plot of land which you work as you can, but on which you have no rights, a plot of land that is not your property. Children born more than 20 years ago, today are about to become parents, and this land that you’ve got with a 1991 act cannot be inherited. Another commitment of ours was to put an end to this serious and painful story for the families living off the land in the countryside, who work the land but do not own it. Now they will be given a certificate of land ownership, and from temporary users of the land will become its owners.

But not only that. In addition to a complete lack of will of the previous governments, what has hindered this process was a heavy burden with documents, but also a not easy financial burden. An endless bureaucracy that would often block the efforts to have the ownership certificate, therefore families in the countryside abandoned the process. What we do today is to provide a free-of-charge service for the certificate of land ownership. It is not up to you to hire a topographer, take measures or go door to door with papers in your hands. All this will be done by the municipality, which needs just two documents: the act of the temporary land ownership and the application. The application and that piece of paper showing that you have the land area since 1991, pursuant to law 7501. All the rest, ranging from the topography to taking the documents to the mortgage office, having them registered and so on, will be done on your behalf by the municipality.

Today, we are giving the first certificates in this area, by paving the path to a process that the mayor has pledged to conclude for all the farmers of Elbasan within a year. The realization within one year of a dream that was not realized for 25 years is enough to feel liberated from a heavy burden, and above all to begin the long-term plan on what you will do with this land. Whether you sell, inherit it, donate it, keep it or continue to work it, this is your choice on a property that is finally yours.

In addition to giving these first certificates to start the process also in Elbasan, thanks to the Administrative and Territorial Reform that has enabled us to do this, what we are doing today is another achievement in the wake of this reform, and we are here today to urge all the farmers in this area to apply in the municipality, submit the act of the temporary land ownership, and be part of the process to become legal owners of the land that you have worked very hard and dreamt about your families, children and grandchildren.

It is also a good omen for what the way of sustainable development of agriculture, livestock and the countryside as a whole should be. The ownership of land, the ownership of the house, the process of legalization in Elbasan is progressing at a very satisfactory pace, the service provided by the municipality through irrigation, roads in the fields which are being built one after another, and the plan, everything is expected to be completed by the end of this year. In addition, advice is provided whenever you want to get a loan. Whether it is the legalized house or the land ownership, you will be much stronger economically because these are assets that can be easily extended to banks as collateral to provide guarantees that the loan that you get to use your land, to increase production, to expand your small farm, means a completely different stage for your household, for the local economy of Elbasan, but also for the national economy.

What is happening in Elbasan, is happening across the country. We are very determined to carry forward this process after the reform of the new municipalities, by providing increasingly more support to the people in the countryside, so that they can produce more, make more money and be economically empowered through their honest work.

Many thanks!

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The process for issuing the certificates of ownership of agricultural land started also in Elbasan. Some residents of Bradashesh and Shirgjan, two municipalities of Elbasan, became today legal owners of their land. They were handed over for free the ownership certificates of agricultural land. The procedure for the preparation of the certificate, ranging from the measurements to the mortgage office, was carried for free by local government units.

25 years ago, families in the countryside were given a document by means of which they could use the agricultural land, but the ownership of the land they worked remained an unsolved problem for over two and a half decades. Farmers said that the non-recognition of ownership has been one of the basic obstacles to the development of their land and household. So this was a fundamental commitment of the government to the countryside, and it has finally entered the stage of implementation.

Denada Çekrezi and Hysen Gjoni, two of the beneficiaries of the ownership certificate, said that they have waited for years and endured a lot. “Many thanks to the staff of the municipality, the mortgage office and the government. It is good that the government is supporting owners”, Hysen said. For Spiro Ranxho, the ownership certificate means passing on the fruits of their hard work to their children. “We will enjoy it generation after generation”, he said.

The Prime Minister urged all those who own the document that has enabled them to use the agricultural land, to go to local governments units and end this long wait. “We are at your disposal, along with the municipalities, the topographers, the municipal offices, and the mortgage offices. You only have to apply, submit the document of the initial act that enabled you to use the land, and all the rest is up to us. This is free and simple. We have the obligation to support you enhance your economy and become lords of your property”- the Prime Minister told farmers.