Good afternoon and welcome to this year-end press conference and the tradition has it that we will make an overview of the main accomplishments this year and then you can certainly ask all the questions and raise any concern on the issues you wish to discuss.

For the sake of truth, I can openly and forthrightly state I feel much better than a year ago given all the progress we have made during this outgoing year that has been absolutely the best ever in every aspect for Albania. It has been the best year in terms of the performance of the country’s economy, always compared with the previous year and compared with how much remains to be done in every aspect and, first and foremost, to further grow the national economy and the household economy of the Albanian families.

It has been the best year in terms of security.

It has been the best year ever in terms of public service delivery, the public investments and the foreign direct investments.

It has also been the best year in terms of Albania’s international position.

This year is actually ending with the country recording a growth that significantly exceeds every growth projection by the government of Albania and the international financial institutions. We are confident that the final growth rate in 2023 will stand at 4%, 3.7% or 3.8%.

This year’s budget revenue collections hit an all-time high and recorded a significant increase than planned.

Albania generated more than 3.2 billion euros in tourism revenues from January to September and it represents a very high figure compared to the previous years. And I would like to make a parenthesis to explain for all of those who wrongly see growth in visitor numbers unrelated to their household economy and randomly comment saying: “We don’t care about tourist numbers, because all it matters is the economy.” Indeed, tourism and tourists are one of the main channels of economic growth as tourism is part of the country’s exports.

Similarly, Albania’s real unemployment rate further dropped in 2023, hitting a record low of 10.5%. Our goal is to further lower the unemployment rate below 10% next year.

Foreign Direct Investments reached over 1 billion euros or 60 million euros more than a year ago.

The minimum wage was increased to 40,000 lek this year and the move practically also coincides with the appreciation of the Albanian national currency and the minimum wage consequently is around 400 euros.

New social support programs have been launched to provide compensation for the increased social and health insurance contributions for every worker receiving a minimum wage. In the meantime, pensions have been increased by 9% thanks to continued pension indexations this year.

Wages for public sector workers have kept significantly rising and a new considerable hike is expected to enter into force next June as projected under the 2024 state budget, with the teachers, servicemen, State Police workers, health workers and public administration employees due to receive a pay rise that would take the average wage in public sector to 900 euros

Soft housing loans program for young families of doctors, servicemen and State Police officers is also underway to support new families and the state budget has allocated due funding to support an initial group of 1000 applicants from the three abovementioned categories that serve the state and the citizens in the Republic of Albania 24/ 7.

Albania’s electricity generation rose 30% year-on-year in 2023. More than 2000 families have received subsidies to equip their homes with solar water heaters as part of the government plan to help households across the country install solar panels to heat water, thus helping keep energy costs low for lower-income families. A total of 2000 families have been included in the first phase of the program.

Tirana Airport is now on par with Belgrade’s airport with the highest number of passengers in the region, an unimaginable accomplishment just a few years ago, and Tirana Airport has recorded the highest passenger numbers in the ranking of the European Civil Aviation Agency for whole Europe.

More than half a million passengers have landed at Saranda port. I cited this figure as it is a very significant one, showing not only what happened this year, but also the tremendous potential of the southern coastal city and it is for this reason that we have paved the way to a major investment project on construction of a new tourist port in Saranda, while process is underway to transform the existing Saranda port.

A total of 37 water supply projects have been completed, providing 24-hour supply to local residents in 29 municipalities across the country and the number of citizens receiving uninterrupted water supply has increased by 223,000 more people.

I don’t want to take up any more of your time by providing data and figures, yet I think it is impossible to shun them at such a press conference, at least certain figures that are significant ones and that can’t be repeatedly reiterated during the whole year.

The value of the country’s agricultural exports has increased by 64.4 million euros compared with a year ago. In the meantime, we have kept on funding important investment projects on water irrigation and drainage infrastructure and the area of the irrigated land has now increased by 20,000 more hectares after development of an entirely renewed irrigation and drainage infrastructure. Hundreds of main drainage canals have been cleaned-up and embankments have been rehabilitated.

Furthermore, I think it is worth praising the laudable work done by the municipalities of o Përrenjas, Roskovec, Belsh, Skrapar and Cërrik with the latter being the pioneer of a new change that we have sought to promote this year and will continue to strongly promote in the future, namely the initiative for building agricultural waste composting centers, a rewarding investment for farmers that would help them increase production quality, but also ensure a complete cycle of their processing.

The financial support programme for mothers with three or more children has progressed just fine. The same goes for the support programme to provide glucose test strips for free to around 60,000 people aged over 65. Major investment projects were completed on the country’s health system this year, but I think it is worth noting that 391 newly-graduated physicians and 1079 nurses have been employed in the country’s public health system this year.

I am not going to list the number of hospitals and new health care centres that have been either constructed from scratch or fully reconstructed this year, but I would like to highlight the incredible success with the new internal diseases hospital at the University Hospital Centre in Tirana and openly state that it is one of the best hospital centres in the region and the centre that offers most excellent care service compared to any private health structure in Albania.

We have pressed ahead with the smart laboratories programme in schools, with the initial 12 Artificial Intelligence laboratories already installed in public schools and 216 more smart labs will be installed next year after installation of 100 laboratories in schools across the country this year.

The wages for the academic staff and the budget funding for higher education has been increased by 40%.

I would like to conclude this overview without taking full stock of the major public works, as you have already provided coverage and have seen them first hand. However, the outgoing year has seen the work on several major infrastructure projects, the national roads, reaching their peak, with a number of newly-built road segments already complete and opened to traffic. Finally, work is running smoothly on construction of Murrizi Tunnel, part of the Arbri Road, which will open to traffic next year, together with the Llogara Tunnel.  In the meantime, contracts are being finalized to kick off work on construction of more segments part of the Blue Corridor project, the major infrastructure work in the country. Similarly, we have received positive response regarding construction of Durres-Hani I Hotit railway and we expect similar response about the Durres-Pogrades railway, which is part of Corridor 8, while work is in full swing on construction of the road corridor.

I am really happy and pleased with the sport in schools programme that has turned out to be a long-awaited success. More than 10,000 children, thanks to the excellent job and leadership of the Albanian Olympic Committee, have been involved in the sports movement, joining the school volleyball and basketball teams and, together with the Albanian Olympic Committee, we are working to further expand sport activities by introducing more sport disciplines in schools.

This is an incredible achievement for the present and the future and it is a safe health and education source, as well as a source of quality and professional sports, professional teams once all these children grow up and lead a career in sports.

We have received congratulations by the International Olympic Committee, the European Olympic Committee and, most importantly, under this programme already in its second year, Albania will host the first Sports Festival of Southeast Europe, an initiative by the President of the Albanian Olympic Committee, Fidel Ylli, with unreserved support by the Albanian government and I am confident that we will host an incredible international sports activity next summer in an event that will see the participation of an impressive number of young people from the whole region.

I would also like to draw attention, as we haven’t had the chance to talk about it previously, but after coming across all the data during the preparation work for this press conference, I looked at the progress of the confiscation process for any extra floors added to projects with official permits, a project that caused an uproar accompanied with speculations and much conjecture and much slander, but I am very pleased to announce today that fine collection already in state coffers after hefty fines were levied on many builders, who have violated the construction permits. A total of 3,5 million euros has been already collected to date for five unauthorized extra floors, whereas the fine payments are expected to complete for four more buildings that will allow tax administration to collect 10.5 million euros for only 9 first unauthorized buildings.

More extra floors have been confiscated in 15 more buildings and the procedures are already underway as the developers or builders have refused to take advantage of pre-purchase rights and therefore legal procedures, as the confiscation law stipulates, will be followed. I am happy to note that it was such an extremely aggressive action that was a must to put an end to abuse in the construction sector, we are witnessing a long-awaited discipline in terms of construction works and the relevant institutions have no longer found violations of the law. However, whoever dares to violate the construction permit by adding extra floors they will pay it dearly and will face severe consequences for any attempt to reap profits they are not entitled to.

I am now available to take your questions.