Albania to let Kosovo use its Adriatic Sea port

02/03/2009| IslamWeb

Albania is to let landlocked and newly independent Kosovo use its Adriatic Sea port of Shengjin, Prime Minister Sali Berisha said on Monday.

 

Getting access to a seaport is important for Kosovo. It wants better access to markets in the rest of Europe and in neighboring Albania.

 

"Prime Minister Berisha ... said Albania is fully ready to allocate to Kosovo a port to meet its needs," Berisha's press office quoted him as telling Kosovo's Transport Minister Fatmir Limaj.

 

Berisha and Limaj agreed they needed to study the possibility of enlarging the port of Shengjin, which is close to a road now under construction costing around a billion euros that will shorten the journey between Kosovo and Albania.

 

"Kosovo and Albania must work jointly to integrate and unify practices in different fields to make life easier for their citizens," Berisha's office quoted him as saying.

 

Other joint projects would include power generation, a railway link, unification of education and cultural programs, mountain tourism and a joint network of customs checkpoints to "scrap bureaucratic barriers in the movement of people and goods", the office statement said.

 

Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci sent a letter to Berisha earlier this month on the port issue.

 

"The port deal would boost Kosovo's economic development and independence, and will bring many-sided profits to Kosovo, the Albanian state and the whole region," Thaci wrote.  

 

 

PHOTO CAPTION

 

The President of Albania Bamir Topi and Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci in a joint conference in Pristina.

 

Reuters