TIRANA, Nov. 22 – Maritime industries can be a new growth sector for Albania and Norway is ready to assist and share its strong tradition and vast experience, says Per Strand Sjaastad, the Kosovo-based Norway’s Ambassador to Albania.
His comments came at a recent conference in Tirana during the launch of Norwegian government-funded project to align the country’s maritime standards with EU requirements with a focus on capacity building and study programs. The €1.4 million project is implemented by the UNDP in Albania.
“I believe that the maritime sector can be a significant engine behind growth and development in the Albanian economy in the future, as it has been in Norway for a very long time. It is about making use of the opportunities, and it is about diversifying the Albanian industry,” says Norway’s Ambassador.
“Norway is ready to support the development of the Albanian maritime sector. It is about developing maritime clusters and sharing experience. This support will be contributions and advice to plans, legislation, capacity building, environment, navigation and communication, mapping and technology,” he adds.
The Norwegian Ambassador has earlier noted that energy can also be a key driver of the Albanian economy, just like it has been for more than a century in Norway, Europe’s largest hydropower and oil producer.
“The Albanian economy is growing, at around 4 percent every year. A growing economy needs more energy – otherwise further growth will suffer. There is a need for investment in the Albanian energy sector, especially in the construction of new generation sources and transmission lines, improvements in the distribution grid, or energy efficiency. There is also a need for stronger integration in the regional market,” the ambassador noted in an energy conference earlier this year.
Norway’s state-run Statkraft has already made operational a hydropower plant in Albania and is about to complete a second larger one in the most important electricity generation investment in the past three decades. The two hydropower plants are part of the Devoll Hydropower project, a €535 million investment with a capacity of 256MW that is expected to increase Albania’s electricity generation by 20 percent.
Limya Eltayeb, the UNDP country director for Albania says improving governance of the maritime sector Albania will ensure more sustainable growth.
“The Adriatic and Ionian basins are a blessing and great resource, but they also face trade-offs concerning scarcity of space, risks in maritime security, scarcity of renewable resources, and degradation of the environment including effects on climate change,” she says.
Albania’s maritime industry is mainly focused on passenger and freight transport in the country’s four ports and a small fish industry producing the country’s top agricultural exports, but whose further growth is hampered by EU export quota.
