Foreign companies are knocking again at Lezhë's doors
• BUT LEZHË STILL DOES NOT KNOW WHO IS KNOCKING! THE GRANTING OF AUTHORITY IS BEING DELAYED IN RECEIVING FOREIGN COMPANIES The granting of a license to a foreign partner had been foreseen as early as 6 months ago. Meanwhile the government was focused, eyes and ears, on the pluralist elections and political formulas. The economic situation does not look hopeful from one day to the next and requires solutions as quickly as possible. These solutions do not depend only on the realization of our “great” dream, but above all on looking concretely at the present, at the situation in which we find ourselves. For an economy moving toward a market economy, foreign investment is naturally a necessity of the times. To be fair, this is also how foreign businessmen see it. Lately they have once again knocked on Lezhë's doors and expressed their readiness. Our correspondent saw this with his own eyes and heard it with his own ears. From the office of the American-Albanian firm. They were two Italian gentlemen who expressed their desire to cooperate with the Albanian state. After preliminary talks, they were directed to come to Lezhë, since here they see very favorable conditions and prospects for investment. According to them, they owned 20-30 passenger buses and various new trucks, which they could bring into Albania. However, according to them, this could be done not by sale in foreign currency, but by barter, goods for goods. Their main interest was to use the conditions in Lezhë to set up a joint food company for the canning and packaging of fish. This would also create the possibility of exporting it. Mr. Ndoci explained our situation to them correctly, as well as the opportunities that exist for mutual benefit. Thus, the Italians asked him which was more advantageous according to our situation, Shëngjin or Lezhë. He explained that Shëngjin was more suitable, especially because of its proximity to the raw material. While asking and learning, they wanted to buy or rent a warehouse in Shëngjin which we had planned to allocate to someone for use. Thus his guard replied that you do not take the fish to work with. Thus the guard to us said: you work, and the sea, the facilities, everything. According to the agricultural standards they will develop, they will use thirty workers in their plant. Why do they come to Lezhë, they said? Because the Italians believed they could build such a company faster in Lezhë than in Durrës. All this is positive, but what makes one pessimistic in this case is something quite simple. Let us ask the employee of the American-Albanian firm: if all of them agree with the conditions we set, do things depend on us? What is needed? The answer is this: it needs the licenses of the presidential council and those have been requested from the government, but they have still not arrived. There is no major difference, except that our state apparatus does not seem to be quick on these matters. And so it awaits impatiently the people who want to do something. I think this is in our interest, therefore the licenses can and should be granted more quickly if the government is in principle in favor of this. Hope is coming, but our practice is still limping. Let us leave aside the leaderships, commissions, the secretary's tables, and respond calmly to the present. May they become reality as quickly as possible whenever they knock again at the doors of Lezhë. (From our correspondent)