Free economic area bid winner announcement postponed

The winner should have been declared 30 days after the tender, but the bid commission has postponed the verdict.

Official sources from the Ministry of Economic Development say for Top Channel that the Commission of Bid Evaluation has requested more time to verify the bid of the Chinese company.

According to these sources, the law gives the commission the right to postpone the date of declaring the winner and make further verifications.

Top Channel has learned that the Albanian government, the Ministry of Economic Development, has contacted with the Deloite company to verify the documentation of the Chinese company, which gave the first bid.

After years of delays, Albania held the first tender for the construction of a free economic area in October 28th. Two bids were presented, first from a Chinese company, Zheijiang Haiteng Investment, which foresees 1.5 billion USD of investments and more than 90.000 jobs. The second comes from an Italian company.

After the initial deadlines, the commission should have declared the winning bid 30 days after the tender is held, on October 28th. But the process results longer than expected. Albania has tried for years to build an economic area. In 2006, the government of that time announced nine projects for the free economic areas and industrial parks that were never realized.

The new government claims they have improved the legal framework in cooperation with a team of the Harvard University. But will the tender be successful this time? This remains to be seen at least until a next decision of the commission.

Top Channel