SP: We have 84 votes for territorial division
11/04/2014

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One day after the Socialist Party Parliamentary Group leader, Gramoz Ruci, declared that they will wait for the opposition one other week and then will approve the territorial reform on their own, other majority leaders are saying that the reform is being done because it is necessary.

“There is no more time for waiting. The Special Commission must approve the new administrative division. This is the opposition’s last chance to complete this important reform”, declared Bashkim Fino, co-chairman of the Territorial Reform Commission.

Fino’s appeal for the opposition’s last chance was reinforced by the Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, who declared that Albania has six times more aqueduct workers than the European Union, and six times less water than every country of the union. This shows that the territorial division in local units is not functional.

The government leader reminded that his agreement is with the Albanian citizens, and that it will be respected very rigorously.

“We want to realize this with the opposition, that’s why we waited for so long. But we haven’t waited without doing anything. We have worked intensively with the communities, thanks to the extraordinary support of our partners and donators. We were voted in June 23rd to lead, and the Albanian people has removed us any possible alibi for the next four years, because they gave us a qualified majority, with which we must and we will realize the territorial reform. We will also make other reforms that require qualified majority. But we cannot wait endlessly with crucial reforms such as that of justice”, Rama declared.

The declarations for the territorial reforms, which have been blocked in the Parliament for three months, were made during the recent presentation the first phase for winning projects of the local units. Considered as the biggest initiative for the local government, the 100 million USD fund will go for 50 different projects in all districts, projects that are related with the rehabilitation of city centers, squares, sportive areas, tourist and informal areas. For the second person in charge at the Albanian government,  who has led the project selection process, the lack of projects in various regions of our country has caused abandonment.

“100 new working sites will be created from today. Hundreds of construction businesses and other services will have a new market and new space to breathe. Thousands of new jobs will open through these projects during 2014”, declared the Deputy Prime Minister, Niko Peleshi.

The Prime Minister underlined that museum cities that could be motors of tourism and development have not seen any investment in decades. He used Berat and Gjirokaster as an example, which had their last investments in the 70s and 80s. Edi Rama declared that in these cities they will invest for what has not been invested in 20 years.

“We will start rebuilding the old city. We will reconstruct 30 roads within the city, which are practically disappearing. We will allow traditional professions to survive after this long agony”, Rama declared.