TIRANA, May 10/ATA/ During a visit in Berat in context of the local dialogue tour, Minister of State for Local Government Arbjan Mazniku praised the municipality of Berat for the success in obtaining European Union funds to increase investments in the city.
Minister Mazniku said that the establishment of the Local Academy, a structure that will help municipalities for staff training and the exchange of successful experiences in various projects, will be important for all municipalities in Albania to increase their revenues as well as the quality of services for the citizens.
“We must take the best experiences that the municipalities have already created and share those experiences with other municipalities. So in regard to the EU funds, we should take Berat’s experience and see how we should do it in other municipalities”, said Mazniku.
Minister Mazniku also said that the central government is considering the possibility that some functions related to education, health and agriculture will pass under the responsibility of the municipalities as an extension of the decentralization process. This proposal will initially be applied in 3 municipalities and Berat will be one of them.
“One of the 3 municipalities where this pilot project of decentralization will be applied is Berat. We shall see how this agreed decentralization works for a period of 1 year and consider how we can extend this decentralization at the national level,” concluded Mazniku.
Together with Mayor of Berat Ervin Demo, Minister of State for Local Government Arbjan Mazniku inspected the works in the “I want to play” sports complex, an important project for the youth in this city./r.e/p.s./
