7089 new businesses started in 2009

TIRANA, September 9ؔhe latest data from public institutions regarding business performance confirm that Albania’s economy has survived in away or another the effects of the global crisis so far.
One of the main indicator used for the positive assessment is the number of new business started during the year. According to official data from the National Registry Office, NRO, 7089 new businesses have started activity in the first 6 months of 2009, mainly in the most important economic sectors such as services, telecommunications, transport, and commerce. These are the sectors that have most contributed in the economic growth during the first half of 2009. Same stats have also been confirmed by the Institute of National Statistics, INSTAT.
According to INSTAT, service sector grew by 15.3% in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same period a year ago. Telecommunications experienced the biggest growth during the same period with 22%, transport with 3.3%, and commerce with merely 0.9%.
“Regarding the first half of 2009, NRO has recorded a total number of registered applications of 73078. From these, 7089 are new applications, 7891 are partial applications regarding changes made by existing businesses in their activity, and 53098 are applications of other nature such as data corrections, start of liquidation procedures and so on,” states a NRO report for the first half of 2009.
According to the report most of the new businesses were registered in Tirana, capital of Albania, which accounts for 30% of the country’s population, with 927 new activities. Durres followed with 554 new business, then Vlora and Shkodra.
Reforms taken by the government to improve business environment in the country seem to have contributed to the recent increase in business activity. Procedures for starting a business have been cut in half and new NRO terminals have been opened all over the main cities to assists entrepreneurs. Applying online is also possible as part of the governments attempts to improve services and procedures to economic operators within the standards of the European Union.