Corruption Hampers Positive Progress In Albania, Says Report

TIRANA, Aug 18 – A recent report, drafted by PRS Group INC in co-operation with Albanian authorities and published by the International Monetary Fund, said the business climate in Albania has improved but corruption has harmed positive images of the country’s progress.
Albania received an extreme number of black points in the IMF annual report on business climate conditions.
The rate of risk for investments has decreased, but high levels of corruption negated the positive. Albania registered some improvements in strengthening security of investments, but is still considered the world’s most risky country.
The index of corruption rate has doubled, according to the report.
The results for the period 1998 – 2001 are compared to the results for 2005 – 2007.
The report noted that the major risk in Albania has improved from 62% in 2001 to 70% in 2007. In comparison to other new EU member states, the coming together of Albania is better and progress is intense. Albania ranked with eight points before all the new EU member states that approached the level of moderately developed countries.
Albania’s weak points are traditionally bound to the lack of enforcement of the law. In comparison to 2001, there was a slight improvement but deterioration due to corruption is dramatic.
In the period 1998 – 2001 Albania received 38 points out of a total of 100 points in approaching states with average progress.
Albania, however, has barely received 17 points, which means that the general corruption level has increased 2,2 times.
These problems result in a low level of foreign investments in the formation of the country’s GDP. The GDP of Albania has scarcely increased from 3 to 4 percent.
All this reveals that the problems of Albania stem from the political situation and conditions. On one hand, the quality of the administration has twice improved but, on the other hand, corruption has increased 2,2 times which shows best that Albanians are close to the target of improvement of their self-government, though their problem remains the political class.
Compared to other countries in the region and in Eastern Europe, Albania exceeds almost all these countries, with some slight exceptions, in gathering an entire collection of “black” medals.
In relation to the major risk for investments, four countries remain behind Albania – Romania, Serbia, Belarus and Moldova. Even Azerbaijan has a lower indicator. Regarding the quality of the government, Albanians are in the middle of the rating. However, Albania tops the corruption chart. There is a significant difference between Albania and the second state on the list – Kazakhstan, which is still governed by former Communist Party of Kazakhstan and one president for life. (Tirana Times Staff)