TIRANA, Feb. 14 – The EBRD’s Board of Directors recently announced that it has adopted a new country strategy for Albania during the five-year period between 2020 and 2025. In this line, the Bank recommended Albania to focus on increasing investments and exports by improving the overall business climate in several sectors. “To speed up convergence to EU income levels, Albania needs to increase productivity by shifting the growth model away from consumption towards investments and exports, especially in view of unfavourable demographic developments. The business climate needs to improve in order to support diversification and attract foreign direct investment, particularly in sectors such as tourism, manufacturing and agribusiness, and to enable sustainable economic growth,” the EBRD stated.
Three priorities stand out in the published document strategy for Albania; the EBRD plans to “support economic governance improvements across the economy” , “enhance private sector competitiveness and inclusion by promoting wider access to finance and improving people’s skills” and “strengthen energy diversification and low-carbon transition under the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans.”
Amongst other government reform priorities, the Bank recommended that the investment climate needs to be improved through the implementation of the justice reform, the strengthening of land and property rights, the reduction of regulation for businesses and increase in the share of public services provided online as well as the provision of a single transparent investment legal regime to improve governance and predictability.
EBRD reemphasized its priorities as “as an investor and a partner in policy engagement in the coming years” , with a strong basis on EU legal approximation for key reforms “including the strengthening of governance and the rule of law.”
