The Albanian government has granted strategic investor status to a company linked to Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to build a luxury resort on an uninhabited Mediterranean island that was once a military base.
The Balkan state's Strategic Investment Board, headed by Prime Minister Edi Rama, on December 30 approved a proposal by Atlantic Incubation Partners LLC for a project on Sazan Island, covering an area of 45 hectares, with a planned investment of 1,4 billion euros ($1,4 billion).
In a written decision, seen by Reuters, the board said the project met legal requirements for strategic investments, including job criteria, and that it was estimated to employ around 1.000 people.
According to the law, granting strategic investor status allows companies to implement investment projects that have been declared strategic in sectors such as tourism.
"The form of state participation in this investment will be realized through the establishment of a joint legal entity," the board stated, adding that the state-owned Albanian Investment Corporation will also participate in this entity.
Reuters was unable to reach Atlantic Incubation Partners for comment.
Last year, Kouchner announced plans to build a tourist complex in Zvernec, in southern Albania, as part of a broader investment plan by his company, Affinity Partners, in the Balkans, which also includes a project on Sazan Island, as well as a project in the former General Staff building in Belgrade, which was bombed twice in 1999 during the NATO intervention in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Kushner, who was an advisor to Donald Trump during his first presidential administration, founded the investment firm in 2021.
These projects could boost local economies by attracting tourists, but they are targeted by critics who claim that the projects will endanger the environment or, as in the case of Belgrade, pose a threat to cultural sites.
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