By Ervin Lisaku
TIRANA, June 26 – Albania was the second largest recipient of foreign direct investment among EU aspirant regional countries for the fifth year in a row in 2014, but the FDI stock remains the lowest compared to four other regional competitors, according to a report by UNCTAD, the United Nations body responsible for international trade.
“Serbia and Albania, both EU accession candidates, remained the largest recipients of FDI flows in the subregion at $2 billion and $1 billion, respectively,” said UNCTAD in its 2015 World Investment report.
Data shows Albania’s FDI inflows dropped to $1.093 billion in 2014, down from a historic high of $1.266 in 2013 remaining the second largest FDI recipient in the region for the fifth consecutive year after Serbia.
Bosnia and Herzegovina was the third largest FDI recipient in 2014 with $564 million, followed by Montenegro with $497 million and Macedonia with $348 million.
FDI outflows from Albania dropped to $30 million in 2014, down from $40 million in 2013
However, when it comes to FDI stock Albania lags behind regional competitors with an FDI stock of $4.46 billion at the end of 2014, compared to Serbia’s $29.5 billion, Bosnia’s $7.4 billion, Macedonia’s $5.1 billion and Montenegro’s $5 billion.
Prospects for 2015 seem more optimistic as the major Trans Adriatic Pipeline bringing Caspian gas to Europe is scheduled to start construction in its Albania section and Norway’s Statkraft continues the construction of Devoll hydropower plant, the biggest investment in renewable energy in the past three decades in Albania.
In its 2014 report, UNCTAD said that in Albania, the Trans-Adriatic pipeline bringing Caspian gas to Europe will generate one of the country’s largest FDI projects, with important benefits for a number of industries, including manufacturing, utilities and transport. TAP is scheduled to start construction in mid-2015 and carry the first gas by 2019. The pipeline will transport natural gas from the giant Shah Deniz II development in Azerbaijan through Greece and Albania to Italy, from which it can be transported farther into Western and Central Europe.
The telecommunication, manufacturing and extractive industries have attracted around half of the FDI stock in Albania during the country’s past two decades of transition into a market economy after the collapse of communist regime and its planned economy.
Greece, Canada, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy are the biggest foreign investors in Albania.
