BAS Programme in Albania promotes local businesses

TIRANA, May 26 – The EBRD Business Advisory Services (BAS) Programme began operating in 1995 and has, so far, undertaken 5,200 projects through 27 offices in 19 countries, with over 56.75 million Euros in donor funding.
BAS has the dual role of assisting SMEs to grow and increase their effectiveness and competitiveness, and also contribute to the professional development of local business consultants to meet the future needs of the SMEs. In the recent months, thanks to Dutch and Austrian funding support, the BAS Programme has opened three new local offices in Albania, Serbia and Romania and has secured the continuation of its operations in Kosovo.
The launch of the BAS Programme in Albania was financially supported by the Government of the Netherlands. It was launched in September 2007. The funding provided has already undertaken eight projects to date, committing a total of 55,020 million Euros.
The BAS project, started in Albania in June 2006, has launched 66 projects (40 of which have already concluded) following hundreds of applications. The BAS projects aim at increasing the management quality and that of standards of the local companies to compete with western European companies.
“The goal is to increase competitiveness of our companies in the market by strengthening their human resources,” according to Neritan Mullaj, head of the BAS Programme in Albania. (Tirana Times Staff)