TIRANA, Feb. 17 – The Albanian government has turned down two bids by Chinese and Italian companies to build an industrial park outside Durres, the country’s second largest city, that was supposed to attract a billion dollar in investment and create dozens of thousands of jobs.
A consortium composed of China’s Zhejiang Haiteng Investment Co., Ltd and Bejing Dongrun Tongbao Technology Co. Ltd. had emerged as the frontrunner in the tender held last October after bidding to invest $1.5 billion in the Spitalla technical and economic development area and create 90,000 jobs. However, the economy development ministry says the bid has been turned down because of irregularities and lack of appropriate documentation in the submitted proposal. The bids evaluation commission found the consortium lacked the technical capacities and there were uncertainties about the proposed amount of investment and its financing.
The winner was supposed to build and operate a technological and economic development zone on a 500-hectare area in Durres under a 99-year concession for a symbolic 1 Euro in return for investment and job creation.
The economy ministry also turned down a bid submitted by Italian company “RENDur4” as failing to submit required documents and financial offer. The Italian company submitted only an extract from the registration center, failing to meet any of the conditions to qualify, said the ministry in a letter sent to its representatives.
Last January, the Albanian government said it had postponed the announcement of the winner after hiring a top accounting firm to verify the documentation submitted by the bidders.
A similar initiative in 2008 when the former Democratic Party-led government announced several special economic zones and industrial parks failed to attract any foreign investors because of the long-standing property issue and poor infrastructure.
Located just outside Durres, the Spitalla park is a strategic site, 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 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, the 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 preferential rates and deductible expenses.
Investors are also supposed to be offered a one-stop shop on licences and have a customs and fiscal unit available at the special economic zone where they operate.
Albania has been facing difficulty to attract new foreign direct investment in sectors other than electricity, oil and mining, also because of tough competition from neighboring countries which offer lower taxes and better incentives.
