Prime Minister Edi Rama announced this during a meeting with leaders of the country’s banking sector, where he discussed measures aimed at alleviating social issues, supporting young people and expanding housing opportunities.

The new government draft law aims to make housing affordable for students and young professionals in Tirana.

According to Prime Minister Edi Rama, the initiative represents a completely new approach to tackling rising rental prices without overextending family budgets. The state will cover half of the rent for students who meet the eligibility criteria. Rama also revealed that the draft law expands financial support for homeownership, offering 0% interest mortgages for young couples and capped 3% interest rates for public sector workers and young professionals.

During the meeting, the prime minister also emphasized the importance of increasing funding for youth employment policies and creating opportunities for education, employment and professional development.

“For me, all those young people who want to work, pursue an education and distinguish themselves through talent, knowledge and hard work—they are my greatest concern and the focus of these aspirations and efforts,” said Rama.

Furthermore, he touched upon collaboration with the banking sector to expand financing in support of the economy and entrepreneurship, citing the “Double Your Enterprise” program, which supports small businesses through state guarantees. Rama thanked the banks for their support of this program and expressed an intention to expand cooperation into the housing sector, as well as through other financing schemes for young people and new enterprises. /gj.m/j.p/p.s./

“We reached the agreement to rent the 2 power generation ships with the support of the US ambassador Yuri Kim. This is a great achievement. It  will guarantee us even during the summer period to have energy independence although the energy that will be produced by these two ships will of course be limited”, said Balluku.

One of the members of the working group, Arbër Avrami said that the capacity of one of these ships is 114 megawatts per hour.

“We hope that these ships will be put into operation within 3 months, so it coincides with the summer period, when our country requires more energy, at a very competitive price, in terms of the current stock market,” said Avrami.

Balluku also focused on the hydro-electric situation in the country and said that there has been an improvement in water flow during the recent days.

“There has been an increase in the level of Lake Fierza. We have decided through the Committee not to produce in Fierza for some time, thus collecting all the water and rain water”, said Balluku.

Balluku stressed that the government has guaranteed that there will be no power outages, as well as no price increase for household subscribers and small businesses./r.e/p.s./

Replying to the leader of the Democratic Party Lulzim Basha during the plenary session of the Assembly, PM Rama said that, “Those families stay in tents because if they moved into apartments, they would have the land, the farm, far from their house”.

“We are talking about 400 families. But as you searched, you can go back and search again, if among those in the tents there is any family that today we are talking about does not continue to receive the rent bonus. Why do they stay in tents? They stay in tents not because we left them in tents, but they stay in tents, because different from you, they work. They stay in tents, because different from you, they make their living by their own work, not by the work of others. They stay in tents because otherwise they would have the land, the farm far away”, said Rama./a.a/r.e/p.s./

“2 years after the devastating earthquake, at least 6 thousand people from Laç not only have not yet entered their anew homes, but no longer receive the rent bonus. The bonus should have been in the citizens’ accounts from October 1. Today, is the middle of the month and desperate residents find themselves in front of empty accounts! 1500 families are able to survive,” he said.

According to Piroli, “The delay of the rent bonus means that the heads of the families have taken the money from the children’s mouth bread to pay the rent, which the government has undertaken to pay”. /m.m/j.p/p.s./

Specifically, about 1.5 billion ALL are earmarked in the 2021 state budget to cover the rent subsidies for families affected by November 26, 2019 earthquake.

According to the General Director of the Budget at the Ministry of Finance and Economy, Mimoza Dëmbi, this act aims to fasttrack the procedures for the rent subsidy disbursement.

The Chairman of the Committee on Economy and Finance, Anastas Angjeli, said that the support for the affected families with rent subsidy until they move into new homes was necessary, as the lockdown triggered by the pandemic delayed the start of the reconstruction process.

General Director of Housing, Doris Andoni, said that in 2020 a total of 13,914 families benefited the rent subsidy. “The figure is dynamic and we expect the houses of these families to be completed any time soon. 300 families in Durrës have left the scheme, as they have already moved into their new homes. In this city, about 4 thousand families affected by the earthquake have received the rent subsidy.”
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