
Ivanka Trump's visit to Vlora a few months ago, along with a group of engineers, was one of the moments where Prime Minister Edi Rama stopped while talking about tourism projects in Sazan and Zvërnec.
In an interview with Rudina Xhunga on his podcast "Flasim", Rama said that the visit was public, but according to him it was followed by speculation about the projects.
"Ivanka Trump was in Vlora a few months ago with a group of engineers, she went everywhere, there was positivity, I didn't see anyone say, "Yes, this here, whatever," that phrase was used, but it's not like the public learned anything from this, the public still speculated, where even big media participated, where it was impossible to establish the truth as part of the thing. I didn't say that the international media are to blame. I'm trying to tell the whole story from my perspective, but the fact is that these are unprecedented lies that are repeated ," the prime minister said.
The Prime Minister explained that Sazani and Zvërnec are two different projects with the same investors: Sazani is state property, while Zvërnec is private property.
Regarding Sazani, Rama said that there is no contract yet, but only negotiations, which have been ongoing for years. He denied the possibility of selling the island, stating that investors have not asked to buy it and that Sazani will remain state property. According to him, of the 560 hectares of the island, negotiations are taking place for about 8% of the surface, or approximately 45 hectares.
"First of all, there is no way there will be a sale. Sazani has been under negotiations for years. We are negotiating with the other party on how to build cooperation with Sazani, we have set some limits, they have never asked to buy Sazani. There is no contract today that we are talking about, there are only negotiations.
"Sazani is not a treasure that has accounting, it is a territory that is very beautiful but also problematic. Sazani is a mined area, demining must be done there. There is no water in Sazan, there is no electricity. This does not make Sazan an indisputable asset. I want to emphasize that both my predecessor and Fatos wanted to bring in investors ," Rama continued.
"In Zvërnec we have another story, which is a story of several years and in fact today we are waiting for a project, after we rejected the first project. We are waiting for the project for Zvërnec to come, meanwhile for Sazan we have not finished the negotiations yet, because Zvërnec is private and Sazan is state land and will remain state land."