Shkodra free zone

plundered, the kinds of values we have been denied, the point we
should start from, the primary goals we should set, our vision for the
future, who should we accept as partners, the way to detach radically
from this backwardness.
The restoration of Shkodra port should be one of the
main goals.
Because of the illogical isolation of Albania due to the
communist regime, Shkodra was deprived from the status of the
intra-territorial port. It would be absurd not plan again the complete
restoration of this port highly evaluated even from the modem naval
academies. It has been proved that the birth of the city and the
imposing building of Rorafat Citadel were because of the inland port
of Buna. The port-city of Shkodra is one of the oldest cities in
Europe and, as noted above, is documented in the ancient Greek and
Roman pre-historic maps. Owing to the navigable Buna River and
Shkodra Lake (the biggest in the Balkans), this vital mouth, for 24
consecutive centuries, I was open and fed from navigating units
coming from the Mediterranean countries, the Black Sea, some
Atlantic Ocean regions. For the first time in 1944 (the establishment
of the communist system in Albania), paradoxically for political
motives, this port was closed causing in the region the worst general
famine that followed since then up to present times.
The metropolis of Shkodra, as quoted by Heredotus, managed to
become the most flourishing centre of the 20 most developed centres
of South Illyria. The economic growth of Shkodra can not be
explained without mentioning its connection with the sea (the world)
through Buna River.
In 1502, after Shkodra was proclaimed “a city open to trade”,
as a result of the fluvial route of Buna, the market of Shkodra turned
to be a centre for the supply of goods in the major part of the
countries surrounding the Adriatic Sea.
The city’s free-market, rich in various manufactured articles
(of 80 artisan groups), agricultural and animal products of Shkodra
region and other foreign goods processed or not processed by
Shkodra traders, gave energy to the economic development and
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