Albania’s worst indicators in the Doing Business 2013 report are dealing with construction permits 185th, paying taxes 160th, getting electricity 154th, registering a property 121st and enforcing contracts 85th.
TIRANA, Oct. 23 – Albania lost three places in the Doing Business 2013 report although it has made it easier to start a business and pay taxes, according to a new report released this week by the World Bank and IFC. The report ranked Albania 85th among 185 economies, three places worse than in 2012, sandwiched between Croatia and Serbia but far worse compared to neighboring Macedonia and Montenegro which rank 23rd and 51st respectively.
“Albania made starting a business easier by making the notarization of incorporation documents optional, cutting procedures by 1, time by 1 day and cost by 7% of income per capita. Albania also made paying taxes easier for companies by abolishing the vehicle tax and encouraging electronic filing for taxes,” says the report about Albania’s reforms making it easier to do business.
Dealing with construction permits ranks Albania with the worst global performance, 185th along with Eritrea. Albania and Eritrea are both “no practice” economies with barriers preventing private builders from legally obtaining a building permit.
Tea Trumbic, a co-author of the report says no construction permit has been issued in Tirana for the past three years. “The National Territory Adjustment Council was the key authority on construction permits but the process used to take a lot of time even then. Now there is a new law supposed to be implemented since last year passing this authority to municipalities but because of problems with its implementation no construction permits have been issued. At this point, we cannot even classify Albania because there is no practice.”
While many economies have strengthened investor protections, Albania is one of the countries which has made the biggest improvements since 2005. In 2008 Albania did so through one major overhaul of its company law.
Another indicator where Albania should make progress is the payment of taxes. “This is an area where government is actively working on. We noticed the approval of a reform this year reducing time for the payment of taxes because of the proposed facilitation of paying taxes online,” added Trumbic.
“There is still room for progress in Albania. Many countries are actively implementing reforms. Macedonia has considerably progressed in the classification. We are also noticing many reforms in Kosovo and this leaves other regional countries rather behind. It’s time to walk faster in order to compete,” added Trumbic.
Albania’s worst indicators in the Doing Business 2013 report are dealing with construction permits 185th, paying taxes 160th, getting electricity 154th, registering a property 121st and enforcing contracts 85th. The country ranks rather better in trading across borders 79th, resolving insolvency 66th, starting a business 62nd, getting credit 23rd and protecting investors 17th.
Last year’s Doing Business 2012 report ranked Albania 82nd noting the ongoing difficulty in dealing with construction permits. “In Albania dealing with construction permits became more difficult because the main authority in charge of issuing building permits has not met since April 2009.”
However, registering property progressed and was mentioned as a reform.
“Albania made property registration easier by setting time limits for the land registry to register a title,” says the report.
The report, Doing Business 2013: Smarter Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises, marks the 10th edition of the Doing Business series. Over the past decade, these reports have recorded nearly 2,000 regulatory reforms implemented by 180 economies. The reforms have yielded major benefits for local entrepreneurs across the globe. Doing Business analyzes regulations that apply to an economy’s businesses during their life cycle, including start-up and operations, trading across borders, paying taxes, and protecting investors. The aggregate ease of doing business rankings are based on 10 indicators and cover 185 economies.
