TIRANA, Feb. 7 – Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama conducted an official visit to Saudi Arabia this week, where he met King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the head of the Saudi Arabian Development Fund and signed a number of important contracts.
During a two-day visit, Rama spoke about proposed projects on the side of Albania in the fields of economy, tourism, education and cultural heritage.
Through an internet post that was accompanied by pictures of his entire trip to the East, Rama expressed hope towards the opening of a new cooperation chapter with Saudi Arabia.
“Economy, tourism, cultural heritage and joint investment plans, with the will to open a new cooperation chapter between the two countries,” Rama wrote alongside his Saudi Arabia photo collage.
Rama said King Salman’s reception of him was very friendly and that it resulted in the signing of some important cooperation agreements.
On the financial sector, Albania’s ministry of finances announced the elimination of double taxation, signaling a more open road between the countries’ business communities and the incentive of foreign investments.
The new Minister of Finances and Economy Anila Denaj was part of the delegation that visited Saudi Arabia; Rama’s decision to re-shuffle his entire ministerial cabinet and replace his most important ministers with inexperienced, mostly young, Kosovo-nationals was criticized last month by political experts and opposition alike.
Rama’s Socialist government has been facing mounting allegations over its ties with corrupt business schemes and involvement in illegal ballot buying with the help of organized criminal networks.
The Voice of America has, over the last two weeks, published and supported a number of investigations that showed how the government had given two government tenders worth approximately 30 million euros to ghost company DH Albania and how Durres Mayor Vangjush Dako had communicated with criminals to ensure votes during the last district elections.
As Rama has replied to these allegations by equalling VoA with “trashy journalism,” a number of international media freedom watchdogs criticized Rama in January for attempting through a proposed parliamentary bill to limit media freedom by censoring unregistered online media portals.
