Govt Guarantees Special Protection to Foreign Investors

TIRANA, March 30

The Albanian government decided to postpone the term on special protection for foreign investments. The Council of Ministers decided during its last meeting to postpone to December 31, 2018, the term set in the law on foreign investments.
Besides the new term, the government decided to add a section that defines detailed procedures on how foreign investors can obtain specific protection.
“Investors or strategic investments that gained this status conforming to law no.55/2015 automatically benefit specific state protection without the need of another decision or procedure,” the section says.
The decision on special protection for investors and investments was adopted in 2010 following a case related to a foreign investor in Lezha region.
Although the National Territory Planning Council approved an ambitious project, it was not implemented due to property ownership issues. The land owners filed a suit against the investor, thus he withdrew his planned project. This was one of the main reasons why the article on specific protection was added to the law on foreign investments. Its main focus was the ownership issue. In cases of strategic or major investments, the government can provide the special status, which means that the government can provide protection in cases of judiciary disputes.

News Source: Scan TV