TIRANA, March 30 – China has taken over as the country’s second most important trade partner in the first two months of this year, replacing traditional neighbouring Greece which has just escaped its sixth year of recession.
INSTAT data shows trade exchanges with China accounted for 7.6 percent of the total in February 2015, ranking the emerging superpower as the second most important trade partner after Italy with 39 percent of exchanges.
Neighbouring Greece, whose economy has shrunk by around a quarter since the onset of its six-year recession in 2008, ranked the third most important trade partner last February with 6.3 percent of trade exchanges followed by Germany with 5.6 percent.
INSTAT data shows Albania’s imports from China rose by around 30 percent to 7.2 billion lek (Euro 50 million) while exports dropped by 8 percent to 1.2 billion lek (Euro 8.3 million), ranking China the second most important partner for imports and the sixth destination of exports after Italy, Kosovo, Turkey, Spain and Greece.
Trade exchanges with China have seen an increase in the past few years, ranking China the third most important trade partner after Italy and Greece while China’s interest for investments in Albania and the Balkans has sharply increased.
The Albanian government is negotiating with a Chinese company to complete the Arbri road, a key segment linking Albania to neighbouring Macedonia. CSCEC, China’s largest construction and real estate conglomerate, will be responsible for the construction, operation, maintenance and management of the Arbri Road, considered vital for the underdeveloped northeastern region of Dibra and trade exchanges with neighbouring Macedonia, says government in a draft law submitted to Parliament.
The construction of the Arbri road got the green light last December at a China-CEE summit in Belgrade where the emerging superpower pledged $10 billion in infrastructure projects for Central and Eastern European countries.
A consortium led by China’s biggest copper producer has recently bought a 50 percent stake in Turkey’s Nesko Metal Sanayi ve Ticaret Albanian mining operations for $65 million, registering the biggest Chinese investment in Albania. Jiangxi Copper will own a 48 percent stake in Nesko while two other Chinese companies have a 2 percent share.
The central banks of Albania and China have also signed currency swap deal worth around 250 million euros.
INSTAT data show Albania’s exports to China double to 11.5 billion lek (Euro 80 million) in 2013 while imports slightly grew to 35 billion lek (Euro 244 million). Trade exchanges in 2014 rose to around 49 billion lek (Euro 342 million).
