Implementing the Mountain Package –The Need to Accelerate Maps of Priority Investment Areas

An open discussion was held today regarding the progress of the Mountain Package, one of the most important instruments for territorial development that municipalities have at their disposal.

The Mountain Package, the draft law which was approved a few months ago, is a new commitment by the government for the sustainable development of mountain tourism and the support of local residents, by creating favorable conditions for investment, employment, and improvement of the quality of life for local communities.

At the meeting, which was attended by heads of municipalities across the country and other representatives of local government, Prime Minister Rama underlined that this package is an exceptionally stimulating policy to create an investment platform in mountain areas, aiming to solve a longstanding problem of over 30 years, through new opportunities across the entire country.

The Prime Minister called the attention of mayors not to delay in the preparation of maps of priority areas and to be fully ready to assist all those interested in facilitating the application process.

“Besides the urgent need to prepare the maps, you must set up a task force in each municipality, a task force of three people who will closely monitor, be immediately available to those who show interest, explain to them, encourage them, and facilitate the process. Because, as the minister said, the first 500 who receive the 10-year contract will not pay any kind of tax.” – he said.

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Prime Minister Edi Rama:

Thank you very much! We found it appropriate to hold this meeting publicly because we believe that this is an exceptionally stimulating policy to create an investment platform in the mountain territories. The fact that on the very first day that the online communication channel was opened regarding this Package, there were 800 expressions of interest, mostly from Albanians abroad.

On the other hand, we are holding this meeting because we are concerned that progress is moving at an extremely slow pace compared to what the Package itself has at its core: speed. Speed in terms of maximally simplified bureaucracy, and speed in terms of the ability to give a very quick response to those expressing interest. And this delay is discouraging for them, as they have already sent their signal of interest to engage in this process and have received no reply for months. This is entirely contrary to the spirit with which this Package was conceived and approved.

We passed the 20/20 law to address this problem, and again the result was not what we desired, because once again there is the unavoidable complication of obtaining approvals from all neighboring property owners.

This Package was created precisely to fully ease the way for those who want to invest in the land of their ancestors but do not possess the documents. That is why it was created!

The same applies for receiving support from various funds, including European Union funds, when you have at your disposal this document, this contract, this direct and immediate agreement, without bureaucracy, without obstacles.

What we did not expect was for the process to stall at the step that is actually the simplest and fastest – your step, to designate the areas and send them to the government, saying: ‘In these areas we want to open the way for this Package,’ practically excluding only those parts that are protected areas, and so on, where even then, there is the possibility of investment with specific characteristics defined by law, but in that case through another channel.

So, I strongly urge you, first of all, to immediately designate the areas, and in my view include as many territories as possible, except for those points where, for legal reasons, investment is impossible.

The Minister of Local Government, as I said in my speech before the Assembly, is preparing the draft that will define the grant based on performance, while the minister is also preparing the two criteria that will apply for ministries, central government institutions, and municipalities alike.

Economic growth at the local level, which then contributes at the national level as well. But how can this happen if expressions of interest for investment in your territories are met with indifference, with bureaucracy, and with months of delays, when this instrument was awaited by you and by citizens for years?

Across Albania this is an opportunity to give mountain tourism an additional boost. Here, in this very venue where we are today, since January 1st there have been 28,000 foreign tourists. This place was once a pit, a former military site without a single human step, only ruins. Today, it is a point that generates economy, and such points can be created in every corner of Albania, on every mountain peak.

Of course, I think the directive may have had a problem, but on the other hand, the directive is easily overcome simply by picking up the phone, communicating with the minister to suggest something else – and the directive has already been changed.

So I suggest: make the map broad and immediately set up a task force to personally engage with all those interested.

At the moment the zone is declared, they will have to submit an official request, which you must publish on the municipality’s website, in the municipal offices, with a list so that others can come and contest in case someone is claiming something that does not belong to them.

When this stage ends, the names go to the municipal council. The council approves them, standing as guarantor for them. At the end of the day, what they receive is land that is currently state-owned, unregistered as private property, but with a contract which, in return for the investment, becomes their land. And if conflicts arise in the future, the state will take responsibility for them.

Therefore, I strongly urge you to focus on this instrument, because it will give you tremendous wings, and on the other hand it is also the duty we owe to all those people who want to invest in the land of their ancestors – whether they are in the cities and wish to invest in villages, or abroad and wish to invest in their homeland.