TIRANA, April 13 – German investors in Albania have become more optimistic about the country’s business and investment climate with more than half of respondents describing the current economic situation as good and satisfactory, a considerable improvement to last year, according to an annual survey conducted by DIHA, the German Association of Industry and Trade in Albania.
German companies in Albania positively rate cheap labor costs, worker productivity, motivation and qualification as well as the availability and quality of local suppliers. Indicators such as academic education, work flexibility, vocational training education and the research and development infrastructure were perceived as slightly deteriorating in 2017.
Only one out of ten respondents said the Albanian education system trains workers well to match labor market needs, with three quarters of companies considering offering training in their own enterprise facilities.
When it comes to their willingness to hire extra staff, only about a third of German companies said they were planning on increasing employment numbers.
About three quarters of current German investors in Albania said they would invest again if they were given the opportunity.
Some 45 DIHA members in Albania, about half of the total members, took part in the survey carried out in the first quarter of this year as part of bigger survey with German Chambers of Commerce in Central and South East Europe.
Back in 2016, the same DIHA survey showed Albania continues remaining one of least attractive destinations for German investors among 16 Central and South East European countries with corruption and crime, lack of transparency in public procurement, legal insecurity and unpredictability of economic policies as the main concerns.
German companies in Albania are engaged in important sectors such as construction, production, retail sales and logistics.
German investments in Albania at the end of 2016 were estimated at Euro 147 million, ranking among the top 10 foreign investors in the country, according to the central bank.
Back in mid-2015 when German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Albania, one of the country largest foreign direct investments in recent years, the Tirana Business Park, a Euro 100 million investment by Germany’s Lindner Group, opened its doors near the Tirana International Airport just outside the capital city, in a bid to serve as prime location for office spaces.
Meanwhile, trade exchanges between the two countries, dominated by Albanian imports of machinery and equipment, rose to a record high of 63.2 billion lek (€461 million) in 2016, accounting for about 8 percent of Albania’s trade volume, says INSTAT, the state statistical institute.
Since the late 1980s just before the collapse of Albania’s communist regime, Europe’s largest economy Germany has invested about €810 million in development projects in Albania, mainly energy, water supply and sewerage, becoming the country’s main donor.
