Rama paid an official visit to Abu Dhabi on Monday, where in addition to meeting with President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, he also met with the CEO of the G42 group, Peng Xiao - beneficiary of a controversial no-tender contract for the "Smart City" camera system, worth $118.5 million.
In addition to Prime Minister Rama, the meeting with Xiao was also attended by the head of the State Intelligence Service, Vlora Hyseni, MP Ulsi Manja, and Deputy Minister of Interior, Xhemal Qefalia - the latter also the Albanian official who signed the contract with the company from the United Arab Emirates.
Asked by BIRN, a spokeswoman for the Council of Ministers said that the meeting with the head of G42 served to “explore and discuss the possibilities and potential for cooperation.”
The "Smart City" project envisages the deployment of thousands of smart cameras in public spaces, including cameras for monitoring traffic on roads, schools and border crossings.
VNA has reported several times about the danger posed by this project, for which the opposition has not yet taken a clear stance. Also present at the meeting with Rama was the head of the Intelligence Service, a character with a dubious past for her connections to one of the strongest files that SPAK is investigating, the Agasi file.
“Smart City” has been included in the list of projects of national importance by the Albanian government and was initially expected to cost around $60 million. However, its cost almost doubled to $118.5 million without a public explanation, while the financing is expected to be covered through a loan from the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development.
The project will be implemented by the company Presight AI, part of the G42 group, which has raised concerns in the United States Congress about its ties to Chinese companies.
The project has also been contested by digital rights experts for the risks it poses to citizens' privacy, due to the wide scale of surveillance in public spaces.
