A soft housing loans program for young families of doctors, servicemen and State Police officers was launched today as an expression of the government’s direct support and commitment to providing decent and quality appreciation for the contribution and service from this workers group.

The mortgage subsidy program, which is being implemented for the first time in Albania this year, has been made available through specific legal changes and will be handled via the web-based e-Albania platform in collaboration with second-tier banks, is designed to help to make homeownership more affordable by providing zero interest rate loans to the eligible categories. The interest rates will be fully subsidized by the state budget.

This year’s initiative to help some 300 police officers, health workers and Armed Forces members with subsidized housing programs will continue next year in a bid to best meet the needs of people working a great distance from their place of residence or need more spacious housing environments.

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Prime Minister Edi Rama: Hello everyone. I am very happy that we finally materialize yet another program to help Armed Forces members, State Police officers and doctors; a program that is essential to the future of every girl, boy, wife and husband as they set about to create their families and it is designed to grant housing opportunities to a new family. This is not an affordable opportunity for those receiving a public or private sector pay at the level of the average wage in the Republic of Albania.

People leading a public service and administration career, moreover, need to look and consider the future. And I fully understand young people who found it hard to lead a future career in the State Police until lately, the found it extremely difficult leading a future career by joining the Armed Forces, because it is an extremely challenging job, whereas the wages were as such that offered no opportunity for the young people to look to their future. Our Armed Forces personnel were the lowest paid, not only compared with the armies of other NATO member states, but compared with other countries in the region. The government has significantly increased wages for the servicemen and with the current pay level being among the highest of the NATO members in the region, it is our goal to keep increasing their salaries to NATO’s average wage level. In other words, Albanian servicemen will see their wages keep increasing each year until NATO’s average level is reached. This is not just a matter of rewarding those at the height of their career after having joined the army for many years now, but it is also a matter of perspective and future for the young people, who should consider joining the Armed Forces not only as an opportunity to serve homeland and take up a job, but also as an opportunity to lead a career and a secure future. People joining the Armed Forces should not be left wondering what would happen with them in a later stage of their lives and how they would live upon retirement and whether they will have the needed means to go on. It is for this reason that we should answer all these questions and the same goes for the police officers.

The affordable housing loan program for all those creating young families, with all the loan interests to be subsidized by the government, is a program to provide affordable housing to these people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to receive a loan and purchase a house.

Housing loan interest rates currently stand at over 6%. It is a very high interest rate for someone earning their living on a monthly salary and, moreover, it is also not easy for the banks to allocate loans to these people considering their perspective, whereas it is completely a different story when they are entitled to bank loans at zero interest rate and, according to all calculations made by the Ministry of Finance, it is obvious this is a winning program for all of those due to be included in it.

We set 300 quotas this year. This program is actually being implemented for the first time, but we will seek to expand the number of beneficiaries and opportunities will be created for everyone in these categories. We are considering plans that you can purchase your own homes too.

The same goes for the doctors, as it is universally known that doctors today are a very favourite “prey” for everyone due to the overall decline in the number of doctors in Europe as result of very expensive medical studies. For example, because of the fact that medical studies are very expensive, the number of doctors is decreasing, because Europe is no longer the one it used to be 10 years ago. It is a completely different Europe now, facing significant economic and financial woes.

However, attending medical school in Albania costs almost nothing as it is almost for free. It is the government that covers their cost and tuition fees for medicine students, as well as for students in other faculties and universities. However, we are talking about doctors and medicine students in this case.

I would like to add that it is extremely important for us that the newly-graduated physicians, in addition to high wages, we build perspective for them. So, for the doctors to be able to create a family, we will employ this instrument to provide them the opportunity for affordable housing and provide them to live in their own homes.

The average salary in Albania will rise to 900 euros a month by next July and, on the other hand, as the Finance Minister noted, what we are delivering today are not things that we didn’t wish to do previously, but these are all what we can afford doing now, as I have repeatedly stated over the years.

And it is for sure that we will keep expanding these opportunities and I am concluding by saying that whoever invests for Albania and whoever invests for his or her own future in Albania will absolutely be making a winning investment. This is for sure.

Having said all these, this program has been already launched and will continue over the coming years, because you will receive very long-term bank loans, while the loan interest will be subsidized by the state.

So much better times lie ahead. Everyone should understand and believe this. Albania can do nothing else, but climb and keep climbing higher, because Albania is now out of that vicious circle, when it used to take one step forward and two steps backward. It would suffice to consider the national currency Lek. The national currency is appreciated neither because of my speeches, nor because of the government decisions or the party plans. The national economy is strengthened by the economy.

Whoever now receives a minimum wage twice as high as the minimum wage they used to earn when we took office, they actually receive 400 euros and not 400.000 lek. However, one thing is for sure, as this year is ending, a new year is coming and you haven’t seen anything yet.