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| A general view of Berat, 140 kilometers from Albania's capital, Tirana. The historic Ottoman town and UNESCO World Heritage site will receive infrastructure upgrades thanks to a World Bank loan |
TIRANA, ALBANIA —
The World Bank said on Tuesday it had given Albania a $71 million loan to upgrade infrastructure in four southern towns to help attract foreign tourism but also urged local authorities to avoid unsustainable overconstruction. Ellen Goldstein, the World Bank's director for the Western Balkans, said infrastructure in the UNESCO heritage towns of Gjirokaster and Berat, the port of Sarande facing Greece's Corfu island, and the southeastern town of
Permet would be upgraded. "It aims to create tourism products, site management plans for the four cities and their surrounding cultural and natural heritage sites, and establishment of partnerships for tourism destination management," Goldstein said at the signing ceremony in Tirana, the capital. But she borrowed lyrics from Canadian singer Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi to caution Albanian authorities against overbuilding or wildcat construction, telling them, "You don't know what you've got till it's gone / They paved paradise, put up a parking lot."
Permet would be upgraded. "It aims to create tourism products, site management plans for the four cities and their surrounding cultural and natural heritage sites, and establishment of partnerships for tourism destination management," Goldstein said at the signing ceremony in Tirana, the capital. But she borrowed lyrics from Canadian singer Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi to caution Albanian authorities against overbuilding or wildcat construction, telling them, "You don't know what you've got till it's gone / They paved paradise, put up a parking lot."
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