Durres Port to become regional hub

TIRANA, Nov. 11 – The Durres Port, Albania’s biggest, targets becoming a regional hub for landlocked Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia. In a meeting with representatives of Durres Port offices in Kosovo and Macedonia, Port authorities announced they were also working to extend their operations in Serbia.
“We are working on a new plan with several stages to make our offices in Prishtina and Skopje efficient and further extend activity in Belgrade and regional areas,” said Oliver Markoski, the representative of Durres Port office in Skopje.
Neighbouring Macedonia has been seriously considering using Albania’s Durres port as an alternative for the transport of goods following ongoing blockade problems in Greece’s Thessaloniki port as the name dispute between Macedonia and Greece remains unsettled. The completion of the Arbri road linking Tirana to the northeastern Dibra region will also considerably cut distance to Macedonia. Ethnic Albanians officially account for around 25 percent of Macedonia’s 2 million population, but the figure is estimated to be higher.
The construction of the Highway of Nation linking Albania to Kosovo in the shortest possible way and the completion of the Kosovo Merdare-Vermice part to the border with Serbia will considerably facilitate the use of Durres port for both Kosovo and Serbia.
Ragic Grainca, the representative of Durres Port office in Kosovo proposed holding interactive forums both in Prishtina and Skopje to further promote Durres Port and the services it offers to private companies.
Selim Belortaja, a former deputy foreign minister and well-known economist, has been appointed the director of the Durres Port, Albania’s biggest port which handles most of the country’s imports and exports.
Data from the Durres Port Authorty show the country’s biggest port handled 2.1 million tonnes of goods in the first seven months of this year, with exports registering a 36 percent increase and imports dropping by 13 percent compared to the same period last year.
Key operations in Durres port such as the container, and ferry terminals are managed by foreign companies under concession contracts.