The Swiss government through the Decentralisation and Local Development programme (DLDP) provides financial and technical support for five municipalities in the North of Albania for compiling the General Local Plan. After Malësi e Madhe, Tropoja and Mat, the programme will also compile general local plans for Klos and Vau i Dejës.
This was made known today during a visit and coordinating meeting the programme hosted in Koplik where the Minister of Urban Development Eglantina Gjermeni and Swiss Ambassador Christoph Graf participated.
The good news was conveyed to Minister Gjermeni and to 13 mayors in the north of the country by Swiss Ambassador Christoph Graf during a meeting in Reç village ( Malësi e Madhe).
“Albania has entered a series of reforms - like the territorial and decentralisation ones – therefore the moment has come for these reforms to be implemented by using all the potentials your country has. The Swiss government supports decentralisation of local government both in the strategic aspect and in mobilizing socio-economic potentials. Therefore in our focus we also place rural areas and their development including local plans. I take the opportunity here to confirm that we will provide support in addition to the 3 municipalities of Malësi e Madhe, Tropojë dhe Mat also for compiling local plans for Klos and Vau i Dejës”, said Ambassado Graf in his speech.
By calling it a nice surprise Minister Gjermeni thanked the Swiss government for cooperating in drafting the documents for functional areas in the municipality of Malësi e Madhe and now also for funding general local plans for five more municipalities.
“Compiling of local plans is a historical process. We are talking about plans that were not done for over 20 years and which are now strategic documents that will serve us for developing the areas where we live in. The General Local Plan is an important instrument that will determine the vision and rules for the sustainable development of urban and rural territories. In this perspective I would ask that the municipality and experts involved through the donor and being monitoried by AKPT, to build an inclusive process of consultations considering also opinions of all actors and interest groups”, stated the Minister of Urban Development, Eglantina Gjermeni.
Within 2016, 31 municipalities will have completed their local plans. 26 are supported financially by the Albanian government with 560 million lek. 5 other municipalities are assisted by USAID. The Decentralisation and Local Development programme (DLDP) with Swiss financing responded to the Ministry’s request to provide technical and financial support for 30 municipalities where work has not started yet. With the agreement sigend today between Minister Gjermeni and mayors of Klos and Vau i Dejës, in the presence of Ambassador Graf, work will now start for the local plans of these two units. Within the spring of 2017 5 municipalities financed by DLDP will have completed their plans. Minister Gjermeni announced that within 2017 all municipalities in the country will have their plans completed. For those municipalities that do not yet have plans, the government is forecasting a potential inclusion in the next year’s budget.
