TIRANA, ALBANIA     On January 30, USAID’s Country Representative, Catherine Johnson, participated in a press event with the Mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj, at UKT headquarters. USAID and the Municipality purchased new software and built UKT's IT system infrastructure and as a result, UKT has significantly improved the administration and collection of taxes (year-to-year increases: 12% Property tax, 16% Educational Infrastructure tax, and 12% cleaning tax) and of water bills. The number of new contracts has been increased by 21%, and overall income has increased by 16%.

An article and video were posted on the Municipality of Tirana’s website: https://tinyurl.com/y9s6n5ee

"We've joined our energies and finances to provide UKT the most sophisticated server room. This is a long-term investment to ensure that not only the water network is developed but also the technology, information network and our entire database and also keeps the investment step in the Water Supply. I am glad that thanks to USAID's very generous help, we have invested around $ 1 million for this server room, turning Tirana's water supply from the dairy farm's era into a sophisticated system that collects not only water bills but even the taxes of the Municipality." -- Mayor of Tirana, Erion Veliaj