The Parliamentary Committee on Productive Activities approved on Monday the amendments to the law "On Investments", proposed by the Socialist Party MP, Pranvera Resulaj.

MP Resulaj announced that the proposed amendments, among other things, provide for the extension of the deadline for submitting requests by investment entities interested in being included in the procedures for obtaining the status of "investment/strategic investor, assisted/special procedure" until December 31, 2026

Resulaj emphasized said that the objectives intended to be achieved through this draft law are the attraction and support of strategic investments, support for domestic and foreign investors, as well as facilitating the follow-up of procedures for strategic investments.

It also aims to promote targeted and implemented investments within the framework of strategic investment legislation, the possibility of applying to all sectors of the domestic economy without sectoral restrictions, as well as an objective assessment referring to the investment value to qualify as a strategic investor.

On the other hand, Democratic Party MP, Helidon Bushati stated that the changes brought to the law are being made to favor the residential construction industry. “Every tower in the capital has an investment value of over Euro 50 million. Construction is the only sector that was not included in the assisted procedure. Why should the state assist a person who will build a tower to sell it for 8 times the cost of building it? It does not produce anything,” declared Bushati.

Bushati also emphasized that the government has not yet managed to absorb foreign investments at the same level as the previous government in 2012. “You have not yet managed to reach the level of 2012,” he said.

Meanwhile, the head of the Albanian Investment Development Agency (AIDA), Laura Saro, emphasized that housing construction does not benefit from the facilities offered by this law.

She estimated that despite the fact that 8 strategic investments are counted throughout the country, in absolute value they account for 70% of the value of foreign investments in the country.

Saro informed that next year Lidl's request will be accommodated, an investment of Euro 120 million which will employ 2,800 people.

The monitoring of investment processes already enjoys 8 years of experience and in these years a communication network between institutions at the technical and decision-making levels has been created.

From 2016 to now, 108 investment projects have been handled, of which 48 have received strategic status, 30 projects have been rejected, and 31 projects are in the evaluation phase.