The National Program “Renaissance 2.0” was presented today. It provides for an investment of 1.5 billion euros. It aims to take local development into a new phase, shifting the focus from the construction of basic infrastructure toward improving the quality of life, public services, and citizens’ experience in the communities where they live.
The “Renaissance 2.0” Program supports the vision for Albania 2030 and the country’s preparation for membership in the European Union, placing the citizen, well-being and the sustainable development of every municipality at the centre.
In his speech, Prime Minister Edi Rama emphasised that Albania has entered a new stage of development, in which citizens’ expectations have increased alongside the standards achieved. He underlined that “Renaissance 2.0” will focus on addressing the new needs of communities through investments in modern public transport, parking facilities, museums of local identities, support for businesses and start-ups, affordable housing, environmental protection, irrigation, waste management, and public services with European standards.
***
Prime Minister Edi Rama:
Thank you very much!
First, I want to thank the minister for the comprehensive work he has done, both with you and with other important components of this picture that were presented. An ambitious national program to move toward “Urban Renaissance2.0,” making available for this leap a target of 1.5 billion euros.
What I thought was important to share with you today concerns not simply the distinction between this new program and the first Urban Renaissance program, but the reasons that led us to this program.
A few days ago, I had a conversation with one of you who was very irritated with a group of people who had come out in a kind of protest over a community issue. And he was telling me: “I found them in the mud; they had no roads, no lighting, surrounded by thorn bushes among the rubbish. Look, I made that neighbourhood for them, with roads, lights, trees; I even installed benches, but they are ungrateful.”
Now, I believe that this is the most mistaken possible interpretation of a reaction that, naturally, he did not like; nobody likes it. Especially when you consider precisely what he was saying about where he had started from, and he could not understand how a community for which he had done all that work could turn against him.
The fact is that the more conditions improve, the more whatever is missing stands out as unacceptable. And this is not ingratitude; it is an expectation of different standards. Poor societies, we have been a poor society; we are no longer a poor society. I did not say that we no longer have poverty, but we are no longer a poor society, and poor societies are much more tolerant of shortages, because in poor societies, the mentality that “things could be worse” dominates. Meanwhile, developed societies, or societies that enter a phase of development in which things that until yesterday seemed as though they could not possibly be part of life become reality, are increasingly intolerant of shortages. This means that success, results, and change do not lower expectations; they raise expectations. “Things can be even better,” whereas in poor societies, “things could be worse.” In developed societies, or in those where development enters a new phase of irreversibility, as is our case, “things can be even better.” And certainly things can be even better, and this is the surest sign that today we are officially in a new phase.
Why do I say officially? Because I remember that, after the latest elections, in a closed meeting, I insisted that the 83 mandates were as much a blessing as they were a curse. They were saying to me, “What is this curse? Why a curse? We are doing fine!”
No, because we are in a new phase in the relationship of everyone who lives in this country with themselves, with the country, and with the state. And the program is one of the instruments that addresses this new phase, starting from the assumption that the Urban Renaissance we know has fulfilled its function.
Now we must go beyond it. And before I move on to some of the points I have noted down, I will return to what the minister said regarding unemployment. All of those are real figures, but again, it would be a great mistake to think that those who reject those figures as a reason to feel good, and instead take those figures and say, “What employment? Here, whoever works is a slave. Here they pay you €200,” are necessarily wrong. Perhaps they are mistaken in the way they formulate things, but this reflects much higher expectations.
Urban Renaissance was the emergence from a long phase of ruin and degradation that was everywhere. And since the mayor mentioned the issue of the main squares, if the main square is the face of a city, the main squares of our cities were the face of degradation and surrender to the fate of every city, including the “Skanderbeg” Square of that time.
Emerging from degradation, restoring the city as the place where people can have a social life, and everything else that then forms the mosaic of Urban Renaissance—with the squares, roads, lighting, schools, nurseries, water supply and sewerage systems, because I will also come to the issue of water supply and sewerage, belonged to a phase in which Albania and its people began to believe in themselves. They began to believe that Albania could be beautiful not only in the mountains and 100 meters from the shore when you were swimming, but that it could be beautiful and could present itself beautifully to everyone who lived in it or opened the door to visitors.
Now, we are no longer in the phase in which these things are missing. I increasingly remember when we used to plant trees in Tirana; it was as though we were putting on a show. People stopped and gathered around the trees. When we planted the red plum trees on Kavaja Street, traffic was blocked because people were watching the planting of the trees. In other words, they had the extraordinary feeling that trees were returning to the city after having been mutilated and cut down on all sides.
Today, those who had not yet been born in 2001, 2002, 2003, or 2004 have no idea that 90% of the trees along Tirana’s streets were planted during that phase. But now we are no longer in the phase of absence. We were looking at some material we are preparing for all those who do not know what has been done for Albania’s environment: five million trees have been planted in Albania’s protected areas. Five million!
Today, we are in another phase. Absence is not the main problem; the issue is the quantity and quality of what you have and what you want. You want more, and you want it to be of better quality. And this is not ingratitude, nor is it an unjustifiable demand.
We build schools. Once, during the first phase of the urban renaissance, this was a very big thing. Today, Durrës, partly because of the Reconstruction process, and Kamza, also partly because of Reconstruction, are cities whose entire stock of schools meets the standards of a European city. Choose whichever city you like. But that is no longer enough.
You may say, “We are building a new school.” So what? What then? Because it is no longer about construction, but about what is inside it. It is no longer about infrastructure, but about how it is used and what that infrastructure produces for society. It is no longer an investment, but an experience.
Mr Demo has a magical word: “experience,” he says. And he is right, because it is no longer the five-kilometre road paved to all standards that impresses the person travelling on that road. It is those 50 meters after the five kilometres that are in bad condition.
It is not ingratitude. It is a new stage in which society finds itself today, thanks to all the work that we have done and of which we have no reason not to be proud. But, at the same time, since we are still in this position of responsibility, we must face this very great challenge.
Because once, what was demanded was a road. I mean, once, because there are some veterans here, like me, elections were won with gravel. There was a time under the majority electoral system when elections were won with gravel. Two truckloads of gravel were dumped onto the track of a road, where, in fact, there were more potholes than flat sections would bring in the votes.
Today, the kilometres that already exist receive absolutely no attention at all. The attention is on the kilometres that are missing. It is no longer simply the infrastructure that receives attention, and where no kilometres are missing, the issue is safety.
Schools, I remember the debate, one of the most legendary debates that I recall from the earlier period, before the Renaissance, about heating in schools and the fact that schools were overcrowded with pupils in each classroom.
The Minister of Education, and this is something that happened at the government table, had a strategic approach regarding heating. He said, “The more pupils there are in a classroom, the more their breath warms the room. Therefore, bear in mind that if you have fewer pupils, it will be colder.” And there was no discussion at all of saying, “Come on, let us provide schools with heating.”
Today, the issue is no longer at all whether there is heating or there is no heating. Today, the issue is not even whether there are gyms or not. Today, the issue is not whether there is a library or there is no library; whether there is a laboratory or is no laboratory. Today, we are in a situation in which we are financing a program to reach 1,000 “smart,” digital laboratories.
These things are not enough at all. Today, the issue is what happens at school, what kind of community life there is at school, what level of safety there is at school, what the relationship is like between the child and the teacher, between the teacher and the child, and so on.
And when we were in the phase of the first renaissance, we were still in an Albania where physical education was regarded as a parasitic subject. Physical education! And the anti-communists had removed it as a remnant of morning gymnastics. And when we introduced physical education, we did not have teachers.
Meanwhile, we created the sports movement in schools. Today, we have 12,000 to 13,000 male and female pupils involved in sports, with uniforms, championships, training sessions, coaches, doctors, and individual medical records. We have arts and crafts to create opportunities for those who want to engage in other activities rather than sports. But it is not ingratitude if parents and society say, “Nothing is in proper order.”
Once, and not in the previous century, but in this century, before we took office, the news on every television screen was filled every day, not with one or two people, but with crowds shouting at hospital fences because there were no medicines at all; there was not even aspirin.
People came to the “Mother Teresa” Hospital bringing their own blankets, their own sheets, their own pillows, their own medicines—everything of their own. There were only doctors working heroically; nothing else.
You entered the “Mother Teresa” Hospital and could not understand whether you were in a hospital, a railway station, an illegal fruit and vegetable market, or a second-hand goods market. Everything was mixed.
In hospital corridors, people moved around on bicycles, and you could not understand who the person on the bicycle was: the doctor, the patient, or a family member, because the doctors did not even have white coats. That was the situation.
Today, it no longer matters at all that hospitals are hospitals, that doctors and nurses are all properly dressed, paid, and treated, because this is no longer what is being demanded. What is being demanded is that everyone’s dignity be respected, as everyone rightfully expects; shorter waiting times are being demanded; and technology is being demanded.
It is not ingratitude. For those of us who are like that colleague here, who knows where this work started from and says, “But wait a second, this has been done, this has been done, this has been done,” it is stressful, but it is the price of the result. The price of success—the bill. People talk about water. Today, based on facts, figures, bills, and data, Albania supplies its population with more drinking water than ever before in its history, including the period when a very serious party was in power. What importance does that have? Because, in fact, we do not yet have a regular 24-hour supply everywhere across the entire territory, because everything is still not as people want it to be. It takes only one tap that whistles and produces no water, one video, for it to go viral and make it appear as though all of Albania is without water.
Once, a park or a public garden in the city centre was enough, and people looked at you as though you had brought material from the Moon. Today, they demand a public garden in every place where they live. It is not ingratitude; it is expectation.
The Lana and every kind of water channel or river, call it whatever you wish, that passed through cities was considered “okay” if it did not overflow its banks, regardless of the mud, filth, and terrible condition it was in. Today, that is not enough!
What importance does it have today that the Gjanica River has been transformed from a scandalous source of filth, from a disgrace like cracks across a person’s face, into an urban asset, if the transformation does not continue all the way to where it reaches the sea? Nobody is satisfied anymore with what has been done for several kilometres. Here again, this is an expectation.
You cannot say to someone, “Why are you demanding this when this and this have already been done, and why do you have no more patience?” Patience is a commodity that can no longer be found on the market.
We will come by public transport. Once, before the urban renaissance, minibuses were the norm. The battle to remove the minibuses was like trying to fight COVID with your fists. Today, there is no question of our expectations of people to be satisfied with public transport. Although there are routes and buses, another level is required.
The minister mentioned the issue of waste. Once, the problem was not how waste was processed. Once, the problem was when the rubbish truck would come, because it came once a week. Today, the concern is how waste is processed. It is another matter that public participation in avoiding pollution is minimal.
To conclude this part, I want to say that whoever thinks society has become more negative should not engage in politics and should not take on work that constitutes a public function or public service, because they cannot handle what they perceive as negativity.
That is one way of perceiving it, and you may consider it that way, but then you should not do this work. Today, whoever does this work must simply make up their mind that society has become more demanding, not more negative.
How society expresses its demands is another subject, and we are not here for that. We are here to understand that we must, without question, move to another level. And today, this is not merely an issue of services. It is an existential issue for a democratic society. It is an existential issue for a society based on a free-market economy. It is an existential issue for a society based on entrepreneurship, so as not to allow Albania to be turned upside down by expectations.
Comparison no longer has any importance, no comparison with the time before the Urban Renaissance, nor even comparison with the Urban Renaissance itself. It no longer has any importance because it no longer has any value.
It has value only for us, so that we understand that we can do things and do more. But comparison is more likely to fuel negativity than to explain anything. It is of no value!
Nobody cares. They have the right not to care. But what fault is it of theirs? Because, if we look at it simply as, “Do they have the right not to care?” we will reach the conclusion, “No, they do not have the right!”
But what fault is it of theirs when someone says, “Why should I care what it used to be like?” Why should someone care if they did not see this entire transformation, either because they were not paying attention or because they were not old enough, and today they are making demands of you?
And I think that, from one perspective—which is not our perspective—this is a victory to which we have made the main contribution: that Albania and Albanians should no longer have a sense of justification for the things that are missing.
We have opened a completely new horizon. But the horizon remains a horizon, and we ourselves have set the standard: it is Europe. Now we must align everything that every person in this country sees with Europe. But when facing expectations, the worst possible adviser is to fear them or to consider them irrational.
Expectations are fuel. It depends on who takes the fuel and uses it. Will it be used to take Albania higher? That is something only we must and can do. There is no higher Albania through the formulas heard all around us. Every formula heard around us means an Albania turned upside down. Or will this fuel be used to turn Albania upside down?
That is why “Urban renaissance 2.0” broadly covers this entire field, which is filled with flowers and, in many parts, with thorns. “Urban renaissance 2.0” means no longer looking at the flowers but focusing only on the thorns. Whoever sees and appreciates the flowers, thank you very much. Whoever does not see them, again, thank you. We must focus on the thorns. We must focus on what is missing.
The entire “Urban Renaissance 2.0” program is about what is missing. The presentation of the program began with Museums of Local Identities. It may appear—it may seem, perhaps it does not, but it may seem—as though one might say, “What are these people talking about?”
In fact, it is unacceptable for us to aim to rise higher as a tourist destination and to believe that we can do so simply by maintaining what we already have and accepting the category in which we currently find ourselves.
The category we are in today is one that we must absolutely leave behind, because otherwise mass tourism will overwhelm us as a tourist destination. Meanwhile, diversifying the portfolio of our tourism offer is essential to diversify the entire composition of that mass of tourists. Twelve million people enter and leave, but I am speaking about those who stay, spend time here, and consume our offer.
Therefore, everything that was said must be taken seriously and must be done. Museums of Local Identities are one element. Modern transport is another essential element. For this reason, we have started, and will now enter, a phase of creating a joint company between the Albanian Development Fund and the municipalities.
It will supply municipalities, beginning with those that receive the largest influxes of tourists, with a new generation of buses, electric buses, which will have to meet many growing needs, especially during the tourist season. Then, step by step, we will create regional connections and establish intramodality. Another component of the program is parking. We can no longer avoid entering an entirely new phase of constructing parking facilities in cities—underground, above ground, and using all the formulas presented here. We believe the program for this is fully operational.
Another important element is everything we will do for the economy, in the sense of strengthening local entities through the Agricultural Cooperation Societies that are being created. Thirty-three Agricultural Cooperation Societies are not few, but we still need many more. Then there is the program supporting all small and medium-sized businesses through the sovereign guarantee, the “Double Your Business” Program, which will be launched and will open the doors of banks to everyone seeking financing to double their capacity throughout the country.
As for start-ups, Mr Demo had a slightly out-of-date figure, which is not in his nature, because he is normally always up to date. Tirana’s share is no longer 85%, but 75%. In the latest application round, 25% of start-ups came from other municipalities. But special work must be done by you here, because we believe that precisely because other municipalities may be less exposed to all these developments than Tirana, they may be places where start-ups can be more numerous.
Talent is not lacking in any village in Albania, let alone in the cities. And the other company that we will establish to support all municipalities, again a joint logistics company, will take the maintenance of irrigation channels and drainage channels to another level by distributing capacities harmoniously and according to priorities that arise from the needs of one municipality, another municipality, and another.
These will also provide added value. Meanwhile, we are preparing the new investment program, which was not part of this presentation: the new investment program for river protection; the new investment program for completing the entire irrigation map, since part of the irrigation map still requires investment; and the new housing program.
We will soon have what we committed to delivering during this term: a completely new approach to housing, not only social housing, but also affordable housing.
We will strongly and concretely support young couples, and we are working on a program which will also receive substantial financing.
In conclusion, I want us to agree together on one point: we cannot allow the issue of Albania’s membership in the European Union to be trivialised or allow people to feel that this issue is unrelated to their daily lives, because that is entirely untrue.
Therefore, making the benefits of this process tangible is a shared duty for all of us.
This is a historic process for 1,001 reasons, but it is also historic for every person’s economy. It is every person’s economic situation that will improve through this process, and this is particularly true for those who are young today.
For those who belong to older generations, I do not like the word “old,” but for those more advanced in age, what I have said is relevant. For the younger generation, it is absolute.
Thanks to membership in the European Union, Albania, ten years after accession, will be the Europe of its young women and young men.
But we cannot put this process at risk, and we cannot allow an absurd narrative, “Why do we need this? Leave it, this is just propaganda”, to channel negative energy toward the process, not merely toward us.
It must be explained that Europe is the standard being demanded. These increased expectations, this need to look not at the five kilometres that have been built but to focus on the missing 100 meters, are precisely what inseparably link Europe and Albania as a member of the European Union with the need to complete those 100 meters.
Therefore, Renaissance 2.0 is not simply about building infrastructure, but about building quality: quality of life and quality of coexistence.
It is not about continuing to build the city but about continuing to build the community. It is not, “Come on, let us build more roads,” but about building connections and creating interconnection and internal mobility.
It is not simply about parks and squares, but about relationships, and naturally not simply about the economy, but about well-being.
Because, in fairness, it must be said that, if we look at all the figures, our economy has never been better.
But if we look at the relationship between this economy, which we see through figures, and what people perceive their economy to be, then we have a problem, not the people. The real issue is their actual sense of well-being and their prospects for future well-being.
Those were my words.
I believe deeply in this program, and I believe deeply in the experience we have accumulated.
I also strongly believe that, if experience does not make us cynical, but instead makes us open, more open to criticism, dissatisfaction, or anyone’s reaction—or, in other words, returning to where I began, if it does not make us rigid and lead us to characterize what confronts us as ingratitude, but instead helps us properly address whatever confronts us, then we will achieve another success.
Otherwise, we will become victims of our own success, which is a possibility.
I said this to our friend here, although I will not mention his name. I told him, “If you call those people ungrateful, you are a victim of your own success. You have no hope. But if you understand them and shift into another gear so that you reach them, rather than expecting them to come to you, then you will become their hero, and once again it will be you who embodies success.”
It is very simple.
And our national and historic duty, my friends, is not to allow the madness of magical solutions to gain ground in any way, because then everything we have achieved will be turned upside down.
It will be turned upside down not merely for us, but for tomorrow. It will mean not European Union membership, but a dramatic return to the past.
Before it becomes too late for those who believe in these kinds of miracle cures, we must run faster. Much faster!
Thank you very much!
