REPUBLISHED

The Investment Corporation’s calls “without competition” and “without accountability”

Erblin Vukaj · Originally published: 1 April 2025

Since December 2023, the Albanian Investment Corporation (KISH), set up by the government to develop public property in cooperation with the private sector, has launched at least eight calls.

A government office complex, a technology park, an exhibition centre, a park dedicated to religious tolerance, the National Library and the “Selman Stërmasi” stadium have been offered to private investors, who are promised business incentives or opportunities to build towers.

The government has promoted these initiatives as “inspiring development”, but they are accompanied by a host of questions about the transparency of the procedures followed and the real benefits for citizens.

“An information blackout while waiting for investors”

Of the eight main facilities presented for development, the Corporation has not opened investor calls for two: Expo Albania (the exhibition centre in Farka) and Durana Tech Park (the technology park in Xhafzotaj). Durana does not even have an architectural design.

Expo Albania was presented as an idea in December 2023. Five months later, its architectural design was announced. Since then, there has been no information about what has happened with this call or whether any private investors have shown interest.

In a written response, the Corporation told Citizens that the Expo Albania feasibility study prepared by Veronafiere and the University of Verona was submitted on 4 April and that “all procedures are currently being followed to open calls for the selection of the private partner”.*

Durana Park was presented as an idea in April 2024, but there is still no design competition. The park is expected to cover 26 hectares in Xhafzotaj and is estimated to cost 18 million euros, but it remains in the first phase.

The calls to admit businesses that will use Durana Park were extended at least three times.

To date, the investors attracted by the Corporation are nowhere to be seen. They are not foreign investors, nor even Albanian ones. The government has nevertheless been generous enough to offer substantial sums as prizes for the architectural competitions under these calls.

The two paired competitions to develop offices for the government and property agencies in exchange for two towers for private investors awarded 280,000 euros to the seven finalist architectural teams.

The Expo Albania project awarded 160,000 euros to its four finalists. Similar prizes for finalists are also envisaged in the competition for the Park of Faith in Petrela. For the design of the tower at the former German villas, planned to be offered to a private investor in exchange for building the National Library, the government has allocated 20,000 euros in compensation for each finalist team.

Promoting competitions for architectural ideas has been a positive practice, but the government and the Corporation have not published any financial analysis to justify the use of these funds.

On paper, architectural concept competitions alone account for around half a million euros in spending. In its response to Citizens, however, the Corporation maintains that “all funds […] will be covered by the selected private partner and do not constitute costs for the Corporation”. 

Since most of these competitions are failing to find interested investors, the question remains: Who will pay the bills?

The composition of the juries for the paired architectural competitions and the Expo Albania project has officially been made public. Alongside ten foreign architects and urban planners, they included Prime Minister Edi Rama, Minister Blendi Gonxhja, Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj, the Corporation’s head Elira Kokona and Territorial Development Agency (AZHT) director Adelajda Roka.

There is no information on who sits on the jury for the Park of Faith or for the Revitalisation of Selman Stërmasi Stadium; five architectural concept teams have been shortlisted for the latter, and the winner is expected to be announced on 4 April.

According to the call documents, the juries must have at least 7 members, domestic and foreign experts whose identities must be announced on the Corporation’s website “no later than one week before the competition”, where brief biographies are also supposed to be published.

The Corporation has published no information on this point, showing that it answers only to the government. Even after Citizens.al submitted a written request for the names of all evaluation committee members, the Corporation gave a general response without naming anyone.

“They include specialists in different fields, representatives of KISH and other institutions with which KISH cooperates, with experience in investments of this kind and in evaluating applications,” was its response.

Unsuccessful calls to attract investors

Apart from architectural practices, none of the calls so far has attracted foreign investors. In fact, of all the calls, only one appears to have generated real interest even among domestic entrepreneurs.

A review by Citizens.al shows that the sole “joint call for design proposals and investment”, the Revitalisation of Selman Stërmasi Stadium, is the competition that has progressed without extensions and with concrete bids.

The call for Selman Stërmasi, opened in December, progressed without extensions, qualifying 5 architectural teams and potential investors. The winner is expected to be announced on 4 April at an event at the Palace of Congresses.

The competition features well-known international architectural practices alongside domestic entrepreneurs such as Behar Çukaj (Bolv Oil), Gentian Sula (AgiKons) and Esat Noka (Ales Construction).

For the other calls, it is fair to say there have been failures. Meanwhile, it remains unclear why the government and the Corporation continue to recycle the procedures despite getting the same result.

On at least ten occasions, the Corporation extended deadlines, while in two other cases it decided to cancel the competition because there were no bids.

Durana Park saw the first phase of its call for users extended from December to January, February and then March. An event scheduled for 2 April at the Pyramid is expected to present the businesses that will use the park (when it is built; there is no deadline).

One of the paired competitions, for the property agencies’ offices and Lift Tower (planned for the former Construction Institute site), had its deadlines extended three times in January.

The Corporation evaluated bids from the entrepreneurs Artan, Adrian and Genci Dulaku (Edil-Al) and DK Construction (no company by this name appears in the National Business Centre registry). But by the end of February, they had not finalised concrete proposals.

Despite this outcome, the Corporation reopened the competition from scratch on 4 March, with a first-phase deadline of 17 April.

A similar approach was taken with the National Library, whose design (Xavier De Geyter & iRI) was brought back by the Corporation after four years of neglect, with an offer allowing a private investor to build a tower at the former German villas in exchange.

The Corporation’s call was extended twice in February and March, then cancelled for lack of bids. On 21 March, the Corporation reopened the first phase again, with a deadline of 7 April.

The other paired competition, to build government offices in Komuna e Parisit in exchange for permission to build Void Tower at the former Albanian Telegraphic Agency (ATSH) site, was extended twice in January. Aiba was then declared the provisional winner, with its bid scoring 1.1% higher than Progeen’s. The latter had until 3 March to appeal. There is currently no announcement that a contract to develop this project has been finalised.

If the Corporation’s projects are failing to find investors, why do the calls continue in the same way? Why were there no applications? Were the criteria unrealistic or the proposals unconvincing?

“The Corporation considers that the criteria set were not the reason for the failure to submit bids, as all the criteria were known at the application stage. For this reason, it was decided not to change the criteria, but to make some changes to the required qualification documents in order to simplify the procedure for applicants,” KISH told Citizens, without providing specific details.

A major concern is the transformation of public spaces into property dedicated exclusively to private interests. For example, a tower of around 25 storeys will rise where the German villas once stood, in exchange for building the library at the former Republican Guard site.

While a new library is a necessary project, why should the state give up a strategic public space to finance it? Without public consultation, or a transparent process of discussion with urban planners and development experts, the government has approved this as a “development option”.

The same logic is being applied to government residences in Vlorë and Velipojë, which will be offered for private development. The call, with a deadline of 17 March, has been accompanied by no announcement from the Corporation on whether any bids were received or positively evaluated.

The idea of developing government residences opens the way to gains for the private sector, but here too there has been no transparency or guarantee that the public will receive a direct return on the investment.

*Updated with the written response sent by the Corporation on 14 April 2025.