The International Competition for the Redevelopment of the Palace of Congresses entered its final stage today, with the five finalist teams presenting their architectural concepts before the international jury for the transformation of one of the capital’s most symbolic public spaces.

Present at the opening of the presentations, Prime Minister Rama emphasized that the time has come for a comprehensive transformation of the Palace of Congresses, while preserving its identity and bringing it up to contemporary standards in terms of technology, functionality, and quality of spaces. The aim of the project is that, through the reorganization and revitalization of the building and its surrounding area, the Palace of Congresses will be transformed into a new destination for Tirana’s tourism, culture, and social life, further strengthening its role as a major hub of public life and daily activity in the capital.

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Prime Minister Edi Rama:

Good morning to everyone.

I believe that nothing I could say would describe this more beautifully and comprehensively than what was already conveyed by all the protagonists invited to contribute to the short documentary.

I would simply like to thank all the participating studios. There was significant participation, and it was not an easy decision to select the five finalists. I would also like to thank the Albanian Investment Corporation by presenting a concrete overview of the results of these competitions.

As we say today, together with this competition, we have reached a total of 15 international competitions carried out. We have three additional competitions currently being prepared. All competitions meet the highest international standards, not only in terms of the participation of some of the most renowned architects in the world today, nor only because of the composition of the international juries, but also because of the procedures followed.

There are currently 12 signed contracts, while another 7 contracts are in process, along with 3 masterplans and 20 public facilities under development. The entire essence of the activity of the Albanian Investment Corporation is to place degraded state properties or properties in need of development at the disposal of investment, in exchange for obtaining high financial returns and improving the quality of public space, serving public institutions and their needs. The corporation’s benefit from this first phase of work, based on signed contracts, is quantified at 523 million euros.

Therefore, more than half a billion euros have been quantified as direct state benefit from this activity, while the contracted economic benefit amounts to 1 billion euros. I would also like to emphasize another figure: the land surface area involved so far totals 46,700 square meters, while the area gained for the needs of the state and public institutions amounts to 267,000 square meters.

Meanwhile, naturally, 35,000 square meters have been gained by the private enterprise side as well. So, this is a partnership with private enterprises, where the state addresses its own needs by making its assets available, just as all legitimate property owners do, but no longer as in the past, no longer by granting them for development with symbolic costs and returns. Instead, the state is becoming the holder of major valuable assets that remain at the state’s disposal.

Let us not forget that even today we still have a considerable number of public institutions operating in rented spaces, paying rent to private owners. What is happening here is an important shift toward state ownership of assets, and through this process, an important transformation is also taking place in the urban structure and the quality of construction itself.

In conclusion, the Palace of Congresses is exactly as described by everyone who spoke in the documentary presented earlier. But at the same time, although the Professor and one of the building’s architects rightly pointed out with surprise how the Palace has resisted over 40 years in terms of its internal infrastructure, I want to say that the building does have serious issues that need to be addressed.

The time has truly come for a transformation while preserving its identity. Naturally, the call for cooperation with private enterprise also implies the development of a building or a complex of buildings, we will see this from the proposals, near the Palace of Congresses.

The goal is for this Palace to become contemporary in terms of technology, in terms of the quality of spaces, and in terms of its entire reorganized and reactivated structure. But also, for this Palace and this area to become another destination of tourist Tirana, of Tirana as the capital of Albanians, of Tirana as a center of cultural activity and daily social life.

We do not want it to remain an “island of silence” whenever there is no event taking place inside. We want to create life here as well, just as we once created life around what used to be the “pit” of the old stadium, which today has become another hub of daily and nightly life in the city.

Thank you very much.

And I would especially like to thank the members of the jury, who have been willing to take part in this competition. It is a beautiful experience because jury members are sometimes judged, and sometimes they are judges. Today, in the role of judges, they are entirely relaxed, while some of yesterday’s judges will appear here today very tensely.

Thank you very much!