April 25, 2006

Remarks by U.S. Ambassador Marcie B. Ries
Ceremony on Submission to the Government of Albania of ASG Power SA $1.9 Billion Project in the Energy Field

I’d like to welcome everyone here today.

First of all, I’d like to thank the Prime Minister very much for being with us today. He is very, very busy, so we would like to get right down to the facts. I want to say that I am extremely excited about this project. It is a really great project all around. It’s an international project with an American interest, Swiss interest, and I want to welcome the Swiss Ambassador, Italian as well, and I think just generally, it’s good for Albania.

This project will be the largest foreign direct investment project ever in Albania -- $1.9 billion. Let me give you some facts beyond that one, which is in itself startling. This project has the capacity to provide within the next 18 months access to low-cost night power from Western Europe. During construction it will provide four thousand jobs and permanently 400. And, maybe this is the most important: upon completion, it will provide enough energy to address all of Albania’s power and gas needs. But in the larger scheme of things, it will help establish Albania as a good place for foreign direct investment, it will have a major positive impact on the overall environment, it will give a boost to the economy and the balance of payments, and will make Albania a major player in the European energy field.

I think what we are doing here today reinforces the support of the U.S. Government for Albania’s economic growth. It’s good for us, for U.S. business. We’re anticipating that it’ll include about $600 million in U.S. equipment and services. And, finally, the participation of the U.S. Ex-Im Bank opens up additional foreign direct investment opportunities for U.S. companies. So, with that, I would like to turn it over to the Prime Minister to say a few words.

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