The international community participating in the Donors’ Conference for Albania have pledged €1.15 billion in donations, grants and loans to help the country rebuild from the aftermath of the November 26, 2019 earthquake.
In his opening speech, Prime Minister Rama thanked more than 100 participating countries and international banks in several languages, and asked for their financial assistance to help recovery efforts.
A joint needs assessment report by the EU, the UN, the World Bank, and the Albanian government, found that more than 47 thousand people were affected directly by the earthquake, whereas about 17 thousand were displaced. The report assessed damages amounted to nearly €1 billion and over 10,000 people are still living in tents.
Prime Minister Edi Rama said the amount pledged was “beyond the wildest imagination”.
Speech by Prime Minister Edi Rama at the International Donors’ Conference in Brussels:
I must say I am deeply touched and I want to start by very simply saying:
Thank you! Please!
Merci! S’il Vous Plait!
Danke! Bitte schön!
Grazie! Per favore!
Teşekkür ederim! Lütfen!
I wish I could continue to say “Thank you” and “Please” in all your languages. If I may, I would like to say it in my own language “Faleminderit!” and “Ju lutem!”
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your invaluable support so far!
And please, I speak here for and from the heart of all Albanians, please support us some more!
Thank you accepting the invitation of the President of the European Commission to this special donors’ conference, for understanding how dark time this has been for my country. So, yes please! Please help us as we try to recover from damages that go beyond our human possibilities and rebuild from the severest blow that befell us in the early hours of November 26 last year.
Thank you Ursula to you personally and to your amazing team!
Thank you to Charles Michel too for having shown us from that first moment of shock to such warm and comforting moment of such a big gathering now, the soul of the European Union, this wonderful body that has done so much to advance peace and prosperity across a continent historically defined by war and that has given so much help to my country and the region I come from during three decades of struggle to build democratic states on the ruined foundations that communism and dictatorship left behind for our societies.
 For more:https://kryeministria.al/en/newsroom/together-for-albania-konferenca-e-d...