Alabar Project/Government's Lies for New Trade Port

2022-12-28 17:49:06Pikëpamje SHKRUAR NGA OLA XAMA
Alabar Project/Government's Lies for New Trade Port
Edi Rama, Alabbar and Belinda Balluku

By Ola Xama

The government's haste to approve the new project for the complete transformation of the Durrës Port area without first starting the construction of a replacement commercial port opened many doubts.

The questions were raised not only by those who managed to do a simple math with the business plan submitted by Alabbar, but also by those who put the logic to work: very well, where the Port is today will become a field of flowers, but the goods where will they pass?

Well, Albanian goods will pass by land and will come either from the ports of Greece or Montenegro and Croatia, but we have also held some government meetings with Kosovo for a common customs point at the Port of Durrës, we have cut several times tapes and signed agreements and memoranda that we remember every November 28?

We are also letting Kosovo understand us, as it did with the beam on the road of the Nation, but with the promises we made to Serbia and North Macedonia at the Summits that we can leave them a customs channel in the spirit of the Open Balkans initiative as will we do it?

To these questions that were increasing day by day, the government decided to precede them by lying several times. The first time was when he said that the new Commercial Port will be owned by Albanians and the property of the public and will be built in the area of ​​Porto Romano. But when he presented the project, it was seen that in fact the model would be PPP and that the state would have less than half (46%) of the shares.

The second lie is that of the technical project and the financial value. At the big conference that was held for the launch of the new Commercial Port, it was said that it will cost 390 million euros. The point is that the detailed technical project has not yet been completed and the obligation to be submitted by the Royal Haskoning company is at the end of February.

Then the question that arises is which budget did the value of 390 million euros come from? From the mind of the minister or the director of the Port? Why did the minister say two years ago that the new port will cost 500 million euros and today that the construction prices have doubled, the value has decreased? Anyone who has placed even an order for a wardrobe for the home knows very well that its fixed value does not come out without giving the dimensions, without giving the number of screws or drawers that are needed, and when the price cannot be given for a simple piece of furniture, think of a port.

Therefore, the question that arises today is what will the Albanians have as wealth tomorrow, apart from lying politicians? Will they have a commercial port? What will we boast and compete with in the region and in the service of which port have we invested the money in infrastructure? Are the attempts that the commercial port in Albania be in Porto Romano, but that the existing one remains owned by a private company and that in the middle of the pandemic the parliament also allowed the activity in the field of goods, except for the hydrocarbon that it had?


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