Tirana, Jan. 5 (AENews) – The Italian government announced it would reopen aid projects to provide Albania with low interest rate loans reaching a total of EUR 73 mln. The official Italian representatives in Tirana announced that the General Directorate of Cooperation for Development (GDCD) had approved seven such projects for the infrastructure and energy sectors.

These funds had been approved with the economic cooperation program for 2002-2004; however implementation had been postponed due to political disputes between the two countries.

During the last year, all aid programs financed by Italy for Albania were unofficially suspended so as for Rome to put pressure on Tirana for the Albanian vote in the UN reform process.

Albanian Power Corporation officials (Albanian state power monopoly), had declared earlier for the media in Tirana that the Italian financed projects were vital to solving the electricity crisis in Albania.

“Suspension of these projects delays solution of the energy crisis”, said a news article on daily “Biznesi”.

Financing from Rome in the energy sector includes a new dispatcher center, a transiting substation in Tirana and a 400KW high power line Elbasan-Tirane.

Energy projects reach a total of EUR 51.5 mln.

Posted by on Jan 5 2006. Filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry