Rama asserted the will to discuss with opposition on electoral and territorial reform.

“I heard the Democratic Party (DP) head say that concerning all those goals that are impossible to be achieved without the majority, we will follow them through with the people. I have no problem reaching out to the people and talking about electoral or territorial reform, but at the end of the day if they want to achieve these goals they have to talk to us first rather than stand in the way of getting the things done as usual. We kept telling them to sit down for electoral reform, they did not show up. “Yet, we could not deny that they were the mandated opposition, so we gave them an extra seat and they did not use it,” declared Rama.

Prime Minister stressed that we have no taboos. “We are ready to discuss everything, to discuss territorial reform. “We think there should be fewer municipalities,” he said.

What needs to be done right now, Rama said, is to sit down and thrash the arguments out.

PM offered the same thing about the electoral reform. It requires dialogue.

PM also touched on some concerns raised by opposition.

“Today there are nearly 400 families that have chosen to live in tents as they are compelled by the agricultural activity nearby. These 400 families are entitled to the rent subsidy,” Rama said,

On the other hand, PM said nearly USD 1.2 billion out of the state budget have gone to the families due to the tax system change.
Regarding the concern raised by the opposition about employment, Rama said that when we took office we found 439 thousand employees on the payroll, while today, he said, the number has grown to 653 thousand people.

“The state administration numbered 120 thousand employees in 2013, today there are 86 thousand,” Rama said.

He also informed that before taking office 8 years ago, $ 38 million worth of medicines were reimbursed, while today $ 220 million worth of medications are reimbursed every year.

PM added that today 280 thousand students access free textbooks. When we took office this practice was not in place. Today students access Oxford or Cambridge textbooks,” Rama said.
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