The Minister of Finance, Petrit Malaj, presented on Tuesday the draft budget for 2025 to the Parliamentary Committee for Production Activities, Trade and Environment.

Malaj said that "public investments for 2025 are planned at the rate of 6.2% of GDP or Lek 161.8 billion (including the reconstruction fund in the amount of Lek 5 billion and Lek 4.5 billion expected project-based financing from the Growth Plan with EU)".

According to him, about the revised budget of 2024, the volume of public investments in 2025 is predicted to be about Lek 11 billion more.

The minister focused more specifically on the financing addressed to the infrastructure and energy sector, which amounts to Lek 74 billion, or 2.8% of GDP.

"The infrastructure is aimed at maintenance according to the standards of the road system in the territory of the Republic of Albania, with a total fund for maintenance expenses of Lek 3 billion; the financing of important projects, where we mention: the expansion of the Tirana - Durrës highway, the Elbasan - Lekaj highway, the Elbasan bypass road and Berat – Ballaban road.

Following the implementation of priority concession projects such as Arber Road, Orikum-Dukat Road, Yacht Port bypass road, as well as Milot-Morinë highway, while the rehabilitation of the railway line Durrës - Tirana Passenger Terminal and the construction of the railway line Tirana - Rinas, the rehabilitation of the railway line Vorë - Han i Hotit, the seaport of Durrës "Porto Romano", is expected to be financed in 2025 with a total of Lek 14.7 billion," said Malaj.

Meanwhile, the ministry said, among other things, that the property revaluation process, which was expected to enter into force in September of this year, has been postponed in 2025, but without specifying a deadline for when the process will start.

All this is because the reform of setting property references in all municipalities of the country has not been completed.

First, the reference prices will be set in other cities of the country, and then the revaluation will begin, as both processes must run in parallel to benefit all citizens by bringing their property value closer to market prices.

"The revaluation of real estate will be done in parallel with the setting of reference prices for the entire territory of Albania, to benefit everyone. It is a process that will last throughout the next year when the new references are made," said Finance Minister Petrit Malaj.