The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will finance the construction of the Vlora airport in southern Albania.
Yesterday Prime Minister Edi Rama spoke at the EBRD summit in London and highlighted the Vlora airport as one of the projects in which Albania would ask the EBRD to invest. Sources have confirmed for Exit that the EBRD has responded positively to Rama’s request.
Rama has spent the last three years promising that the Vlora airport would begin construction soon. The government has currently opened bidding for the tender that includes the construction and operation of the airport for 35 years.
In 2017 the company Seed Consulting won the bid to conduct a feasibility study for the Vlora airport. In January 2018, before the feasibility study had been concluded, Prime Minister Edi Rama announced that the government had received an “official request” from a consortium of Turkish companies to construct the Vlora airport. However, in September 2019 he announced that the Turkish consortium had rescinded its bid. Bidding for the construction of the Vlora airport tender was opened in December 2019 and will close in March 2020. Construction is expected to begin on May 31 2020.
It remains to be seen how EBRD’s involvement will affect the government’s plans.
