ETF Report Says Poverty Reduced By 30 Percent

TIRANA, Aug. 4 – The European Training Foundation (ETF), an agency within the EU, released a report on Friday claiming poverty in Albania has notably been reduced since 2002.
According to the report, Albania, one of the youngest countries in Europe, is working hard to reduce mortality rates and poverty and solve issues related to migration, a dominant socio-economic factor over the two past decades. It is doing well in that field: The EU recorded a massive reduction in poverty in Albania with 30 percent of the poor lifted out of poverty in 2002. A decline in the fertility rate was also coupled with a rapid growth of the population aged over 65 and a decrease in those below 15 years of age, the report added.
Further, the report says that large internal and external migratory flows remain a problem, causing a decrease in the rural population and a growth in urban areas, especially the capital, Tirana. Moreover, job creation in the private sector has been weak. The lack of demand for labor led about 63 percent of the working age population in Albania to start their own income-generating activities.
Assisting its people to find jobs, Albania is seeking to implement a new qualification framework law, improve working conditions, and ensure equal opportunities as regards gender equality.
According to the report, 8.3% of the population in Albania is over the age of 65, while the population of the Albanian capital Tirana has grown from around 200,000 in the early 1990s to close to 800,000 in 2005.
The ETF is an agency of the European Union based in Turin, Italy, which supports education and training in countries surrounding the EU.
The ETF considers Albania to be a priority country. Accordingly, The ETF finds itself committed to help Albania implement new education and training policies and laws and foster a fertile environment for employment creation. In order to develop the human resources in Albania, The ETF is working on updating vocational education and training legislation and creating a national agency in that field. Working with the ministries of education, science, labor and social policy and cooperating with national stakeholders, the ETF projects in Albania mainly aim to embed the EU’s education and training 2010 agenda into a coherent national system.