Albania, North Macedonia to establish joint economic zone

TIRANA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Albanian Prime Ministers Edi Rama and his visiting North Macedonian counterpart Zoran Zaev agreed here on Wednesday to establish a joint Economic zone.

Zaev is paying an official visit to Albania, accompanied by Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov and Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Bujar Osmani.

Following their meeting, the two prime ministers told a press conference that they agreed to establish a joint Economic zone at the border between the two countries.

Rama said that the trade exchanges between the two countries have increased 11 percent year on year in 2018 from a year ago.

For his part, Zaev underlined the two governments have the obligation to lift double controls at the border points between the two countries, which will reduce by 20 percent the time of people and freight movement.

Moreover, the two prime ministers expressed their confidence that the European Union (EU) will open the membership talks with the two countries in June.

"We expect the EU to take a positive stand on our two countries, so that we will fulfill this strategic goal," Zaev said.

The two leaders said their governments have accomplished all requests by EU, including reforms in their judiciaries and public administration.