TIRANA, Nov 28 /ATA/ –By I. Vata/ – The post-earthquake reconstruction program will be the main engine that will drive growth of the Albanian economy in 2021, Socialist Party lawmaker Ervin Bushati said in an interview with the Albanian Telegraphic Agency (ATA) on Saturday, underlining that the reconstruction projects and the entire process are progressing rapidly in all areas affected by the devastating earthquake on Nov 26 last year.
Bushati noted that the government and the local government authorities in the quake-affected areas have worked hard to implement the national reconstruction program shortly after the tragedy.
“This historic program for Albania is unique in terms of the disaster response even by developed countries, where many affected families have yet to settle in new homes. What is worth highlighting one year today since the tragedy struck is that we feel proud of the positive accomplishments in 365 only, when work has been underway to reconstruct every damaged house,” Bushati told ATA
Socialist lawmaker noted that reconstruction projects have progress rapidly, despite some minor delays due to the pandemic that ensued just few months after the deadly earthquake.
“The related processes, which certainly take their time to assess damages and register them, as well as other administrative procedures, have advanced actually very rapidly. All the reconstruction sites have been already launched and work is underway to construct new houses for some 36.000 quake-affected families in 11 municipalities,” Bushati said.
Regarding the budget support for the reconstruction this year and the amount foreseen in next year’s budget, Bushati said that the reconstruction program will be the turbo engine of the economy in 2021.
“The state budget has allocated a total of 36 billion lek to support reconstruction program this year. In the next year’s state budget, this process will cost around 28 billion lek. Many of the reconstruction projects will give a fresh impetus to the country’s economy which is expected to recover following a very difficult year we went through because of the earthquake and the Covid-19 pandemic. The economy is expected to grow by 5.5% in 2021,” Bushati noted.
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