It was one and a half year ago that the Albanian Prime Minister presented one of the most ambitious initiatives to encourage investment in Albania. “Albania one euro’ would be the golden opportunity which would attract investors from abroad and assist the local ones to increase production in the country. The scheme which was not fully disclosed in details included basically the offer to sublet all facilities such as land and other resources at the nominal cost of one euro for potential investors. AlbInvest given its major role in the improving of the Albanian image has been chosen to promote the “One Euro” initiative abroad. Coupled with the creation of the National Business Registration Center these would be the primary major measures to boost investment, the Achilles heel of the Albanian economy. The NCR would prove that business can be opened at less cost and less
The first beneficiary of this initiative would be according to the government plans would be the thermo-power plant of Fier. However, now it seems that another initiative will be the first to enter the history of ‘Albania one euro.’ Luckily for Albanians it seems this will be a local company. Albanian business seems to have matured enough to compete with foreign business in benefiting from the business climate that the government is trying to create.
“Al-Celik Vega ltd.” has recently presented to the Pm the latest project to construct a site for the reprocessing of metal mainly scarp iron. This will be a big facility that will offer employment opportunities and will finalize an enterprise of 50 million euro. The president of “Al-Celik Vega sh.a.” was guaranteed by the Pm that the project will benefit form all feasible facilities including those of the “Albania one euro initiative.” Other facilities predicted are the reimbursement of VAT on imported equipment.
As far as the tender for the thermo-power plant in fioer is concerned the only participating company in it was the Greek “Kolizopulos”. The company has offered to produce energy at a price 20 percent higher than the imported energy, around 93 euro per kilowatt/hour. The final result of the tender ha snot been mad epublic yet which is also one of the reasons why this project is not the first one to benefit form the ‘one euro’ initiative.
Albania one euro
This initiative was one to raise the curiosity of all journalists which as usual for Albanians went first to seek out an expert foreign opinion. Albanian IMF mission head, Istvan Szekely, offered them one of the most enigmatic and sarcastic answers of all times. ‘The devil lies in the details,” Szekely said quoting an old German idiom.
More than one year later the devil has not yet come out of the dark. A complete comprehensive plan has not been published yet. Experts near the Prime Minister say that one paper the project has been completed. Sources form the Ministry of Economy say that a financial bill ha snot been compiled yet about the costs that the administration will have to handle upon offering this facilities at basically no cost for business. Another beneficiary of this initiative seems to be the fason industry which will rent out the spaces at the cost of one euro.
Problems
However problems have plagued this initiative soon. One of them relates to the cost of technological water that is used by business for the production process, another asset that was going to be offered at the cost of one euro. The water prices had been previously determined by the Nano government according to a fixed list that mostly benefited big business. The fee 160 lek per meter cube was protested as an unaffordable cost by small and medium enterprises which then produced at higher cost and sold at higher prices.
Taking the example of developed EU member states which offer technological water (water outside of the aqueduct system that services the population with drinking water supply at large) business have emphasize that in the case of Italy, the tariff is a fixed annual fee of 700 euro. The plan to offer water to business at a lower cost was overturned by the Minister of the Environment Lufter Xhuveli who argued that the revenue loss of this measure would be too much for his institution to handle.
For the future
If this initiative is to work more coordination will be necessary with the different sectors and ministries to have a clear picture of what can be realistically offered at the price of one euro and if the added value of each investment is worth its cost. The initiative is supposed to increase the quality of offers as well as the competitively of rivals since it is an unique opportunity offered by a country starved for investment.
