Rama said, “For the first time in our nation’s history, since 1912 when we declared independence, we are seeing influential individuals, tied to political power in both the government and opposition, being held accountable before independent prosecutors and judges.”

In the meeting of the Foreign Policy Committee of the Socialist International, which was held today in Tirana, Rama referred to the justice vetting process as ground-breaking.

“We blazed the trail in the justice system because on one hand, we have massively cleansed the justice system through a vetting process, and on the other hand, we have practically shifted the sword of punishment from the executive branch to that of justice.”

According to the Prime Minister, this was not the case just a few years ago.

Rama also stated that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has increased by 2.5 times in the span of 10 years under the socialist government, emphasizing that “from 10 billion euros in 2014, it has now reached 25 billion euros.”

“We are recording sustainable growth. When we took office, the GDP was below 10 billion euros. Last year, it reached at least 25 billion euros, which is 2.5 times greater,” he stated.

At the same time, the prime minister added that the income per capita has also tripled during this period.

He emphasized that tourism has seen growth.

“We started with less than 1 million tourists, and we closed 2024 with 12 million foreign tourists,” stated Rama.

The Prime Minister pointed out that today, Albania has the largest airport in the region, which ranks first in Europe for passenger growth.

“We have the fastest-growing airport in Europe. We have surpassed Belgrade, which historically has been the regional airport. Now, we have the highest number of passengers,” emphasized Rama.

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In the new projections for 23 countries of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, including Albania, the institute revised upwards the projections for the economy of 20 countries.

Albania’s economy will grow by 5% in 2021 from 4.5% forecast for April 2021.

“The large-scale vaccination rollout launched in March has delivered the desired impact and the number of COVID-19 cases has dropped significantly. However, there are potential risks from new variants of the virus and from the influx of tourists. The Socialist Party won the April 2021 elections and will govern the country for a third term of office. This means a certain stability and the continuation of some infrastructure projects that will attract investment. Thus, we have improved our growth forecast for 2021 from 4.5% to 5%, and for the next two years to over 4%,” it is said in the official statement of the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies. /j.p/r.e/sm/