TIRANA, Jan. 13 – The only container scanner in the Durres Port has been repaired speeding up the customs clearance for businesses in the country’s biggest port. The scanner, a donation of the Chinese government, had not been operational since 2012 because of lack of maintenance and a scanning concession which was cancelled before taking over.
Government paid a Chinese company Euro 38,000 to make the scanner operational which is expected to cut smuggling and trafficking of drugs.
In late 2014, a U.S based company initiated legal proceedings seeking $359 million in damages at an Arbitration court in Paris after the Albanian government unilaterally cancelled a 15-year screening concession in Albania’s customs points. In August 2013, U.S-based Rapiscan System was awarded a 15-year concession to provide turnkey cargo and vehicle security screening services at various sites throughout the country, but the contract was suspended after fierce opposition by the business community which claimed the high tariffs would increase costs and reduce their competitiveness.
In March 2010, the Albanian government was fined USD 20 million over the unilateral annulment of a 2003 railway contract, worth Euro 74 million with U.S giant General Electric. The project cancelled in 2005 was aimed at modernizing the Tirana-Durres railway segment, known also as the electric train, which would have been linked with Mother Theresa International Airport.
