REPUBLISHED

The Sazan dinner: how public assets were put on the table

Erblin Vukaj · Originally published: 22 January 2026

The arrival of Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner in Vlorë on Wednesday, accompanied by official welcomes and a private dinner with Prime Minister Edi Rama, was publicly presented as an extraordinary visit.

But at its core, the visit by Trump and Kushner, who have often visited Albania since 2023, exposes an established model of decision-making by the Rama government: concentrating public assets in a few hands linked to political and financial power, now international as well, through direct negotiations, without transparency, competition or accountability.

This model is not unfamiliar in Jared Kushner’s own public profile. In the United States and the Middle East, he has faced sustained criticism for building his business career by benefiting from the political position of his father-in-law, Donald Trump, particularly through major investment deals concluded after the end of the presidential term.

Critics have raised questions about potential conflicts of interest and the lack of separation between public roles and private gain, a debate that now finds an echo in Albania.

Sazan and Zvërnec as “spoils to give away”

Kushner’s proposed project to build luxury resorts on Sazan and in Zvërnec is advancing through a formula that sidesteps the basic principles of competition so often demanded and praised by the EU as part of integration.

It arrived as an unsolicited proposal. It proceeded without public discussion or an open international tender. No one can say: is Kushner’s offer the best available, and is the possibility of allowing other investors on Sazan being considered?

Since January 2025, when strategic investor status was granted, the government has been negotiating directly with Kushner’s Affinity Partners, which owns Atlantic Incubation Partners LLC. It is expected to hold a majority stake in a partnership with the government enterprise Albanian State Development & Real Estate (ASDRE), which was established in June.

The negotiating group consists of representatives from the administration of Deputy Prime Minister Belinda Balluku, the only one still in office after the government changes following the latest elections, and from the ministries of Finance, Environment and Tourism.

The group also includes representatives of the Albanian Investment Development Agency (AIDA) and the Albanian Investment Corporation (AIC). The latter has included it in the map of projects it aims to develop.

In February 2025, it was AIC that engaged, for around €300,000, the law firms Tonucci & Partners and Nexia Consulting to strengthen “the Albanian state’s position in this investment” through “legal, financial, technical and environmental expertise”.

This approach suggests that the government granted Kushner investor status without being sure of its own position in the unsolicited proposal. In other words, without knowing the precise financial and environmental impact.

It is precisely over the environmental impact that Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania (PPNEA) and other environmental organisations have repeatedly raised concerns that Kushner’s proposal affects protected areas, particularly Zvërnec.

In a statement on Wednesday, PPNEA stressed that “around 14 kilometres of wild coastline that is a protected area […] is planned to be transformed into asphalt roads, bright lights and luxury apartment buildings that leave no room for wild nature and communities”.

This development is taking place while the European Commission has made closing the environment chapter in Albania’s integration process conditional on amending the protected areas law, which had opened the way to such investments in natural parks.

It is worth noting, however, that the EU has remained silent on this particular case, much as it has over Vlora Airport, which is expected to have an enormous impact on the Vjosë-Nartë network of protected areas.

Citizens.al contacted all the bodies in the negotiating group to seek information about meetings, the current state of talks and whether other businesses, particularly Albanian companies, had expressed interest.

By the time this article was published, only AIDA and AIC had replied, limiting their responses to emphasising that Affinity Partners remained interested in continuing the project and that ASDRE was not considering any other project proposal for Sazan*.

This overall picture makes it clear that the government is treating Sazan and Zvërnec simply as spoils to give away, rather than as irreplaceable public assets that need to be managed under rules.

Officially, the emphasis in Kushner’s case is on the status of “strategic investor”, a label that in practice has served as a key to bypassing standard procedures, Parliament and public debate about costs, benefits and risks.

A recurring model

Sazan and Zvërnec are not isolated cases. The Rama government has acted similarly in treating the Port of Durrës, the Port of Vlorë and the protected area around Vlora Airport as spoils.

The Port of Durrës was given to Emirati businessman Mohamed Ali Alabbar. In his case, this was done through a special law, an accelerated parliamentary procedure and a partnership predetermined at the government’s famous dinner at the Dubai restaurant of Nusret Gökçe (known as Salt Bae) in 2021.

The Durrës Yachts & Marina project with the Emirati group Eagle Hills thus had zero public debate and zero competition. The formula turned Parliament into a “notary” for a deal negotiated and agreed away from institutions and public scrutiny.

For the Port of Vlorë, reporting has shown that the government used a combination of the strategic investment law, the “Albania for 1 euro” formula and special Council of Ministers decisions, leaving unexplained how the state’s actual participation was bypassed and minimised in the Marina di Valona project.

Similarly, zero public debate, zero competition.

In the case of Vlora Airport, the government showed that, when it wants to and has the will, it can follow and apply competitive procedures through an international tender after an unsolicited offer.

Of course, it is another matter that this procedure was a formality: the airport was initially promised to the Turkish consortium “Cengiz-Kalyon-Kolin Constr.” and then, through questionable procedures, awarded to the Mabetex–2A Group partnership of Behgjet Pacolli and Valon Ademi.

These cases clearly show how the government measures the public interest not through competition and clear conditions, but through negotiations and decisions made around tables outside institutions. Moreover, for these investments, the government assumes the obligations of providing supporting infrastructure.

In this sense, Sazan and Zvërnec, historically undeveloped and without water and electricity supplies, are simply the next spoils, since in their case not even the formality of an international tender or competition is being followed.

From 3D renderings to “negotiation” with the government’s architects

For Sazan and Zvërnec, not only does there appear to be no competition, but now the architectural project itself seems to be taking a new form, with reported meetings between Ivanka Trump, government representatives and “50–60 architects” whose origins and appearance in Vlorë remain unexplained.

Among them, in several photos circulating online, Japanese architect Kengo Kuma stood out. Internationally known for his modernist style, Kuma had been invited to Albania for the Bread and Heart architecture festival and is the designer of the Visitors’ Park at Butrint.

The photos also appear to show Adelajda Roka, head of the Territorial Development Agency (AZHT), who is not part of the negotiating group.

From this and Kuma’s presence, we can infer that the group of architects may have been organised by AZHT.

Since October 2025, AZHT and the National Territorial Planning Agency (AKPT) have reorganised the Bread and Heart festival into a foundation. Citizens.al has sought clarification about the purpose, reasons and process behind this transition.

But this reorganisation, which has brought together the government’s preferred architects, is clearly taking on a significant role. The meeting with the architects was reported to focus on the Sazan and Zvërnec projects. This implies that discussions have now moved on to “how the project will be built”, rather than simply “whether it will be built”.

If the initial 2024 proposal was a “vision”, a 3D rendering, the meetings with architects imply that the substance of the investment is now being negotiated: building volumes, interventions, infrastructure, phases and tax concessions.

But if the project is “being reconceived” during negotiations, then the justification of an “unsolicited offer” falls away, because this is no longer a defined offer that is merely being assessed and processed. It is, in reality, joint design without transparency.

Even after repeated requests for transparency, the Albanian government has yet to disclose a series of details: what will actually be built on Sazan and in Zvërnec? What is the Albanian government really offering: the land, infrastructure, preferential treatment or exclusivity? What have the investors promised, and ultimately, what do Albanian citizens gain?

*The article was updated with AIC’s response on Sazan.