TIRANA, Oct. 28 – A Chinese consortium seems to be the front runner in the race to select an investor to build and operate a technological and economic development zone on a 500-hecatre area in Durres under a 99-year concession for a symbolic 1 Euro in return for investment and job creation.
The Economic Development Ministry say a consortium between China’s Zhejiang Haiteng Investment Co., Ltd and “Bejing Dongrun Tongbao Technology Co.Ltd” has bid to invest $1.5 billion in the Spitalla technical and economic development area.
Italian company “RENDur4” is also reported to have submitted a bid but no details are made available on its financial offer.
An evaluation commission established by the economy ministry is expected to announce the winner in late November 2015.
The winning company is expected to complete its investments in nine years and create 90,000 jobs.
The ministry says the investor’s financial capacity will be assessed with 50 points, compared to 20 points for the technical proposal, 16 points for the project’s social impact, 8 points on the completion of the investment and 6 points on the environmental impact.
Located just outside Durres, the Spitalla park is a strategic site, located close to the country’s biggest port of Durres, 30 km from the international airport and 37 km from Tirana.
The concession is part of the “Albania 1 Euro” initiative which had also been launched 2006 but proved unsuccessful in attracting foreign investors in these kinds of investments.
The government initiative is an effort to make Albania more attractive to foreign investors after the corporate income tax was raised to 15 percent in 2014, angering the business community which opposed the initiative as making Albania less competitive compared to other regional countries applying 10 percent flat tax regimes.
The Albanian government has also identified free economic zones in the southern coastal city of Vlora and the Koplik town in northern Albania near the Montenegro border.
In the Spitalla special economic zone, government targets bringing technological, industrial companies with a big number of employees.
In its new law on technological and economic development zones, the Albanian government plans to offer a series of tax reductions to foreign investors, including exemption from the 50 percent profit tax on the first five years of their activity, exemption from the 20 percent VAT on imports and a series of other tax exemptions and deductable expenses.
Investors will also be offered a one-stop shop on licences and have a customs and fiscal unit available at the special economic zone where they operate.
Foreign investors will be offered simplified and accelerated procedures in the next three years for strategic investments in energy, mining, transport, telecommunication, infrastructure, urban waste, tourism, agriculture and fishing and special economic zones, according to a new law.
Strategic investors in Albania’s tourism sector will also be offered state-owned property for a symbolic 1 Euro under 99-year concession contracts to develop tourist resorts.
