TIRANA, Oct. 24 – Albania is seeking tourism and infrastructure investment from the United Arab Emirates, one of the world’s richest countries, to compensate for some major energy-related investment, already in their final investment stages.
In a surprise visit to Saudi Arabia this week in the midst of a tense political climate in the country, Prime Minister Edi Rama met Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the prime minister and ruler of Dubai, to address an appeal to UAE investors to consider investments in Albania’s rapidly growing tourism sector, as well as infrastructure and ports. The two prime ministers also discussed the possibility of launching direct Tirana-Dubai flights.
Albania has been one of the Western Balkans largest FDI recipients in the past few years attracting about €1 billion a year in investment, mainly energy-related ones such as the Trans Adriatic Pipeline bringing Caspian gas to Europe and some major hydropower plants.
Albania is represented with its own embassy in Dubai and since 2015 has lifted visas for UAE citizens who can now travel to Albania with just a valid passport and can stay up to 90 days within a period of six months.
The UAE helped reconstruct the northern Albanian Kukes airport, bordering Kosovo, which has been named after Shaikh Zayed, the late UAE founding father. The airport reconstructed a decade ago, has not been made available for use yet despite the concessionaire managing the country’s sole international airport having its exclusive rights on international flights lifted in early 2016.
Earlier, this year Albania’s ruling Socialist Party led by Prime Minister Rama paved the way for contract negotiations with a Dubai-based company which has offered to invest $250 million on a 350-meter high tower in Tirana in return for a 25,000 m2 construction site and being stripped of taxes for 15 years from the start of its operations.
The proposal on the “Iconic Tower” investment, which would be the country’s tallest, has been made by Dubai-based Al Habtoor Investment LLC, the international investment arm of the Al habtoor Group, which already manages 14 hotels in Dubai and in the U.S., U.K., Austria, Hungary and Lebanon.
The stock of UAE foreign direct investment to Albania is currently at a modest 19 million euros, according to Albania’s central bank.
