Kosovo-Serbia agreement expected to have economic benefits

Former Finance Minister Arben Malaj stresses that the problem in Albania's case remains a lack of transparency while we rank last in the region to absorb investments.

Malaj stresses Albanian government focused on projects PPP for infrastructure, bringing high financial costs to Albanians.

Albania is expected to have economic benefits from the Kosovo agreement, Serbia, which envisions the realisation of the railway network, an infrastructure project, but also a maritime port in Durres.

 

 

But beyond that, experts raise a series of questions about their realisation.

Former Finance Minister Arben Malaj stresses that the Albanian government shows no interest in the absorption of these projects.

Albania even results last in the region benefiting from projects under the Berlin process, as there is no real transparency and feasibility studies.

The only thing I fear is the fact that the government so far has shown that there is no great interest in donors. So we're the last with proposed and beneficial projects from the Berlin Conference, which is essentially the philosophy that projects that have an impact on more than two states take priority, because they better combine two-three economies together. This hesitation of the Albanian government, I believe, is not simply administrative, but donors often limit supervising and taking over”, Malaj told abcnews.

Malaj emphasises that the neglect of regional projects by the Rama government comes from the interest to build roads with PPPs that have very high financial costs.

“It is focused Russian on public and private preferential partnerships and seeks to modernise our country's infrastructure by increasing debts at the expense of Albanians. This is very difficult because we are a small country, we are a developing country, and in the more developed countries infrastructure expansion costs are too serious to be paid directly by taxes. Generally co-operated with development banks”, he said.

The establishment of a deep port in the Adriatic Sea is a very important economic element for Albania, which will also be followed by infrastructure, meaning the transition of part of Serbia and Kosovo trade to our country.

The implementation of these projects would bring more employees to the country, but more budget revenues.