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As part of the official visit of Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama to Paris and his meeting with President Emmanuel Macron, Albania and France are strengthening their cooperation on sustainable development.
The Albanian Ministry of Tourism and Environment and the AFD Group have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to extend their bilateral cooperation in environmental protection. This collaboration aims to strengthen biodiversity conservation, integrated management of protected areas and management of the country’s forest resources. It also plans to deepen reflection on the protection of marine areas, the fight against pollution of waters and aquatic areas and the reduction of coastal erosion, which are essential for the development of sustainable tourism on the Albanian Adriatic coast.
The Memorandum of Understanding signed today in Paris, demonstrates a common commitment to implement programs for the exchange of knowledge, experience, and technology on the basis of equality, reciprocity and mutual benefit in priority areas of biodiversity and natural resource conservation.
During this signing at AFD headquarters, Mirela Kumbaro Furxhi, Minister of Tourism and the Environment and Marie-Hélène Loison, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of AFD reconfirmed this strong and constructive commitment during their exchange.
Ms. Kumbaro Furxhi noted that: "The signing of this agreement reinforces the partnership already in place between the Albanian Ministry and the AFD Group in the implementation of Albania’s strategic priorities in the field of environment, green transition, sustainable development, blue economy, aligned with the objectives of European integration and the Green Agenda".
Marie Hélène Loison also expressed her enthusiasm and insisted that: « We are eager to use all the cooperation tools of AFD and Expertise France to support the Albanian Government in its path towards EU membership. This agreement defines more precisely the framework of our cooperation and lays a solid foundation for an even more fruitful partnership in the environmental sector in the coming years.»
The AFD Group, a partner of Albania since 2019, is deploying its financial, cooperation and technical expertise instruments with a clear mandate to support the country towards the European Community acquis and the implementation of the Paris agreement on climate change.