Nearly 7% of foreign businesses closed their activities in Albania in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the latest INSTAT data, the number of foreign enterprises in the country in 2020, decreased by 6.3% compared to the previous year. This constitutes at least 408 foreign enterprises with mixed domestic and foreign ownership.
As a country whose workforce depends greatly on foreign activity, last year, Albania was hit by a series of businesses closing due to the pandemic. However, as major trading partners like Italy, Greece, Kosovo, Turkey, Germany, Macedonia, and the US left, causing a 16% drop in their activity in the country, other countries used the pandemic as an opportunity to establish economic cooperation. Businesses from other countries reached 1903 entities, increasing by 23.5% from the year before.
Italian companies were hit the hardest, considering that they also comprise the largest number of foreign businesses operating in Albania with about 2553 of them. While their activity decreased by 15% compared to 2019, the largest drop was in the case of Israel, with roughly 99 businesses closed. This consists of a 59% decreased from 2019.
These figures are especially worrying for Albania, even though the crisis has somehow been balanced by the new connections established with new partner countries, considering that according to INSTAT, enterprises with foreign owners or co-owners occupy 3.6% of the total active enterprises in the country and employ 12.4% of the workforce.
Enterprises from the EU member states represent 62.2% of foreign and joint ventures. Owners or co-owners of Italian and Greek origin represent 77.8% of total foreign and joint ventures. Foreign and joint ventures are mainly concentrated in the municipalities of Tirana and Durres respectively 64.9% and 12.1%.
