Albania loses pace in global competitiveness

The report shows corruption remains the most problematic factor for doing business in Albania for 21.2 percent of respondents, followed by access to financing for 20.2 percent, inefficient government bureaucracy at 13.8 percent, tax rates at 11.3 percent.
TIRANA, Sept. 3 – Albania lost another two places in the 2014-2015 Global Competitiveness report published this week by the World Economic Forum, ranking 97th among 144 economies on deteriorating basic requirements, efficiency enhancers and innovation and sophistication factors. In this year’s report, Albania was sandwiched between Zambia and Mongolia, lagging behind all regional countries. Albania ranked 95th in the 2013-2014 global competitiveness report, 89th in 2012-2013 and 78th in the 2011-2012 report.
The report shows corruption remains the most problematic factor for doing business in Albania for 21.2 percent of respondents, followed by access to financing for 20.2 percent, inefficient government bureaucracy at 13.8 percent, tax rates at 11.3 percent, poor work ethic in national labour force at 8.7 percent and inadequately educated workforce at 7.4 percent.
With a score of 3.8 in a 144 country list on a 1 to 7 scale, Albania ranked worst in innovation sophistication factors (114th), and slightly better on efficiency enhancers (95th), and basic requirements (97th).
In the Institutions pillar, Albania ranks best in the strength of investor protection (14th) and burden of government regulation (28th) while auditing and reporting standards as well as judicial independence rank the country 126th and 122th respectively.
Albania ranks 90th in infrastructure on poor railroad, road, port and fixed telephone lines infrastructure.
The report ranks Albania 122th in the macroeconomic environment on high budget deficit and public debt levels.
Health and primary education rank Albania 62th with life expectancy at 77.4 years ranking Albania 39th.
Higher education and training rank Albania 60th. In the goods and market efficiency Albania ranks 93rd on poor competition but better total tax rate and number of procedures to start a business.
Poor flexibility and efficient use of talent rank Albania 93rd in the labour market efficiency. The report ranks Albania’s financial market development 114th on poor efficiency and trustworthiness and confidence.
Albania ranks 91st in the technological readiness on poor technological adoption and ICT use. The small market size ranks Albania 105th while innovation and sophistication factors 114th.
The report describes Albania as a country with 2.8 million population, a GDP of $12.8 billion, accounting for 0.03 percent of the world total and a GDP per capita of $4,609
The Global Competitiveness Report 2014-15 assesses the competitiveness of 144 economies based on 12 “pillars” which include institutions, infrastructure, health and education, labour market efficiency, technological readiness, innovation and business sophistication.
Switzerland led the top 10 for the sixth consecutive year in the Global Competitiveness report.