Italy gives to Albania 93.2 million euro for infrastructure projects

TIRANA, Oct. 4 – Italy on Wednesday provided Albania with a 93.2 million loan to help the tiny Balkan country rehabilitate a road, improve power distribution network, build a new health facility and reconstruct a southwestern port, the Finance Ministry said. The soft loan would be used in four projects to finance road segment Shkodra-Hani i Hotit in the north, to strengthen power distribution network and its link to the Balkan network, to improve a hospital pavilion in Tirana and to rehabilitate the Vlora port in southwest, according to a statement.
The Ministry of Public Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications also singed the deals with the Italian counterparts on the projects. The money will be spend as following:
– 21.7 million for the rehabilitation of Shkodra – Hani i Hotit road segment.
– 51.5 million euro for restructuring and strengthening the Albanian power system and integration with the Balkan system, strengthening the transmission and improving the control.
– 5 million euro for improving the national trauma center in Tirana hospital.
– 15 million euro for rehabilitating the Vlora port.
The deals were signed with Artigiancassa, which is a unit of Italian banking group Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL). Neighboring Italy has been one of the main donors to post-communist Albania, one of Europe’s poorest nations.