TIRANA, Feb. 22 – Albanian cities have failed to make it to the most attractive locations in Europe for future foreign direct investment, according to a report by the Financial Times.
The 2016 biennial report shows Albania still lags behind regional competitors in cost effectiveness and FDI strategy. By contrast, landlocked or almost landlocked Serbia, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were represented with several mid-sized, small and micro cities and regions in the 2016-2017.
To create a shortlist for the European Cities of the Future 2016/17 rankings, the fDi Intelligence division of the Financial Times collected data for 481 locations under five categories including economic potential, labour environment, cost effectiveness, infrastructure and business friendliness.
Albania has been facing difficulty to attract new foreign direct investment in sectors other than energy, where it is already a tough regional player with electricity, oil, mining and coming gas investment, also because of tough competition from neighboring countries which offer lower taxes and more attractive incentives.
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.
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.
