09 Sep 14
The government in Tirana said that an Albanian port on the Adriatic Sea which had been promised to Kosovo could now be leased to a Chinese state-owned company.

Nektar Zogjani
BIRN
Pristina

The Albanian transport ministry told BIRN on Tuesday that negotiations over awarding a concession for the use of the Shengjin port to China have been going on for the past few months.

"They [Albanian government officials] are currently talking with a Chinese state-owned company about awarding a concession on the port of Shengjin, but there is no deal yet," said transport ministry spokeperson Genc Caushi.

The port is also expected to be discussed at a conference in China this week, which Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama will attend.

Shengjin is located near the town of Lezha, in northern Albania, and was seen as a good opportunity for Kosovo to gain access to the Adriatic Sea.

In 2009, a year after Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia, the former Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha said that the Shengjin port would belong to Kosovo, but nothing was done about this afterwards.

Kosovo economy expert Ibrahim Rexhepi said he believed that Albania was looking for a more serious partner to invest in the port.

He said the promise to give the port to Kosovo was made for “media effect”.

“After that, the two governments did not make a single move to implement the idea,” Rexhepi told BIRN.

Rexhepi said Kosovo lacks the financial capacity to invest in Shengjin because “the port needs a completely new infrastructure and the widening of areas where the goods will arrive from other countries”.

He also noted that economic cooperation between Kosovo and Albania was at low level in general.

“We lack cooperation in joint capital, public or private investments,” he said.