Invited to the committee meeting to give opinions about these draft laws were: Vasilika Vjero, Deputy Minister of Finance and Economy, as well as the technical staff of MoFE. Initially, the commission reviewed the draft law “On some additions to law no. 125/2013 “On concessions and public private partnership”, amended”.

Making the case for the proposals, MP Tabaku said that the current legislation leaves room for abuses and misinterpretations, concerns brought up even during a consultation process with various stakeholders and civil society that began in April 2022.
While outlining the initiative, she emphasized that the changes are intended to strengthen the transparency and accountability of the government for concession/PPP. Detailing the proposals, Tabaku clarified that the initiative is based on 4 elements: increasing transparency by publishing complete and permanent documents in the Concessions/PPPs Handling Agency; increasing personal responsibility so that anyone who holds public office is not only responsible for actions and inactions; strengthening the control of Financial Reporting, requirement for any company in the race for a Public Concession to publish and prove that it has at least 50% of the project’s income and that the source of that income is legal; as well as the obligation of every company to submit a detailed statement of income and their justification whenever the entity will be provided with a construction permit or certificate of use.

Deputy Minister Vasilika Vjero informed the commission that the Ministry of Finance and Economy has started the process for changes to law no. 125/2013 due to the need to align with the relevant EU Directives and based on the recommendations, we are also working with the IMF to clarify where to intervene in the legislation for concessions/PPP, the organic law of the budget or the bylaws.
Vjero clarified that an inter-institutional working group has been set up to draft changes to the current law, which are expected to be reviewed by the Assembly in the second half of 2023.

During the presentation of the second initiative, the draft law “On some additions and changes to the law no. 55/2015 “On strategic investments in the Republic of Albania”, amended, Tabaku clarified that their primary purpose is to encourage and attract strategic investments, domestic and foreign, in the sectors of the economy, defined by this law as strategic sectors , through the establishment of special administrative procedures favoring, facilitating or accelerating support and services to investors.

Among other things, Tabaku clarified that the initiative proposes changing the deadline for submission of requests by parties of interest to the Albanian Investment Development Agency, setting January 1, 2023 as the deadline.
During the discussions, the deputies of the parliamentary majority objected to the initiative, arguing that strategic investments have increased the number of tourists in the country over the last few years, and setting a deadline would put investors at an unfair disadvantage.
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