The handover ceremony was held at the Municipal Hall of Maliq in the presence of Ambassador KATO and Mr. Gëzim Topçiu, Mayor of Maliq, with other representatives from the Municipality. During the ceremony, Ambassador Kato expressed her hope that this grant project would enable Maliq Municipality to improve its capacity to manage and maintain local roads, as set out in the Regional Development Plan of the Municipality, contribute to the Albanian Government’s goal of strengthening connectivity in regional cities, and lead to improved administrative services for Maliq Municipality’s residents. She also referred that this project aligns with achieving Equitable Growth throughout Albania, one of the priority areas of Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) in Albania. She further hoped that through this grant project the relations between Japan and the Municipality of Maliq, as well as Albania would be further strengthened. Mr. Topçiu expressed his gratitude to the Government and People of Japan as well as Ambassador for their continuous support provided in Albania, underlining the importance of the grant at this time for the Municipality and its residents.

Japan’s Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Project (GGP) is to meet the diverse needs of local communities by directly supporting the development activities run by NGOs or local governments. Priority areas of Japan’s ODA in Albania are Environment and Equitable Growth. Since 1998 the Japanese Government has been providing GGP to local governments, public educational or medical institutions, and NGOs in addressing their development needs respectively for the development of Albania.