Honorable Minister Kishi,
Dear Secretary General, Mr. Agaçi,
Honorable Ambassador ITO,
Dear ladies and gentlemen,

It was a unique pleasure to host today in Tirana the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Japan Nobuo Kishi with whom we will celebrate afterwards the opening the Embassy of Japan in our country.

Talks with Mr. KISHI gave us the opportunity to make a balance of our relationship that have recognized a new dynamic in the last 3 years, especially in the field of trade exchanges.

Japan is no longer just a donor country but also a promising economic parnter for the development and modernization of key segments of our economy.

In this context, today we had the occasion to talk about the support that the Japanese government has given us over the last decade, but also about the transition to a new phase of co-operation.

Albania has shown that it is a country that can be reformed, changed and can provide more space and ease to foreign investment, including Japanese investments as well.
Thus, the opening of the new Japanese Embassy to Albania coincides with this new reality.

On behalf of the Albanian Governement and Prime Minister Rama, I wsih to thank the Japanese Government for the allocation of this generous grant for the donation of 129 Toyota eco-friendly next-generation vehicles.

Certainly, a special thank goes to the International Cooperation System (JICS) for the dedicated work for the implementation of the project.
As emphasized also by the Minister and the Ambassador, the purpose of the allocation of this grant is indeed to reduce environmental pollution through new generation’s vehichles.

They will surely serve to raise awareness among the public and state institutions, and improving the quality and environmental performance.

We believe that we will have an improvement of public services that have benefitted from the distribution of these vehicles. Moreover, we shall gradually share the same practice in almost all public institutions dedicated to increase of the environment protection capacities.

By concluding, I wish to once again thank Minister Kishi for his presence today, the Japanese government for selecting Albania for this grant and at the same time express Albanian Govwernment’s desire and willingness to further deepen and expand relations between us and convey a clear message of mutual engagement and support.

Thank you!