Philippe Le Houérou, the Bank’s Vice President for Europe and Central Asia, conducted his first official visit to Albania, on January 12-16. 
The main purpose of the visit was to launch discussions and consultations about the new World Bank Country Partnership Strategy for the next 3-4 years in Albania.
During his four-day visit in Albania, Mr. Le Houérou, visited the construction site of the regional road Berat –Sinje, part of the project “Improvement of Secondary and Local Roads”, financed by the World Bank and implemented by the Albanian Development Fund. On this trip Mr. Le Houérou was accompanied by Ms.  Jane Armitage, World Bank Country Director and Regional Coordinator for Southeast Europe and Ms. Camille Nuamah, World Bank Country Manager. The WB representatives were welcomed on the site by Mr. Pelivan Shatri, Regional Council Chairman and Mr. Benet Beci Executive Director of ADF.
After a short briefing with the technical details of the sub-project and the overall status of implementation for the project, Mr. Le Houérou affirmed that: “The road segment that we are visiting today will give a positive impulse to the development of this area and will have a concrete impact especially on the agriculture”.  On his statement Mr. Le Houérou declared also that he is very pleased with the actual implementation status of the project, the successful coordination and fast disbursements carried out by ADF.
On his speech Mr. Beci, expressed the gratitude to the WB for the constant support provided to Albania through development programs, and especially for the role played by WB on the “Improvement of Secondary and Local Roads” project, not only as donor, but also as promoter and coordinator of a wider group of financial institutions that later joined this initiative.

“The Improvement of the Secondary and Local Roads” Project, which is co-financed by the World Bank and other donors amounts at US$ 400 million, aims at enhancing the concrete efforts in the improvement of local infrastructure and the increase in access to essential services and economic markets, especially in the rural areas via the rehabilitation of about 1500 km of road. Currently 210 km of local and regional road are under the implementation process at an estimated budget of US$ 107 million. Till the end of 2010 is estimated that the amount of local and regional road improved or under implementation will be 340 km. There have been drafted the technical designs and documentations for the procurement of 400 km of road, and it has been successfully completed the inventory for 3500 km of regional and local road via the establishment of a system which shall assist especially in the investment prioritization  based on objective technical criteria.

So far, the funding partners engaged in this project are the Albanian Government, the World Bank, OFID and the Council of Europe Development Bank with an investment estimated at US$ 97 million. Concerning the year 2010, the goal of the project is to reconstruct and rehabilitate 340 km of road. The budget for the current year is characterized by a considerable increase in investments, reducing thus markedly the operating cost for their accomplishment.