Italy pledges 50 mln euros in development projects
TIRANA, Nov.8 – Italy has reconfirmed its financial support to Albania’s economic development announcing the allocation of another 50 million euro fund for the next two years to implement projects supporting energy, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as agricultural and social development. The continued support by Albania’s top trade partner was announced last weekend during a meeting Economy and deputy PM Ilir Meta had with senior Italian officials in Tirana, including ambassador Saba D’Elia and the head of the local Italian Development office Aldo Sicignano.
Appreciating the successful cooperation with Italy during the past 20 years, minister Meta encouraged Italian companies to further increase their investments in vital sectors of the Albanian economy such as the rapidly growing energy sector, where four projects are currently being implemented in cooperation with Cooperazione Italiana allo Sviluppo, whose programme is supervised by the Italian Foreign Ministry.
An Italian government-funded programme supporting Albanian SMEs through soft loans has also proved successful, says the economy and trade ministry.
According to Italy’s Confindustria lobby group, some 300 Italian companies operate in Albania, mainly operating footwear and garment manufacturing.
Albanian INSTAT data show trade with EU countries continued accounting for a majority of 68.7 percent of the total, with Italy and Greece, where more than one million Albanian immigrants live and work, remaining the country’s top trade partners. Exports with Italy made up 56.7 percent of the country’s total in September while imports were reported at 28.2 percent.
Italy also continued remaining Albania’s main destination for textile and shoe exports in the first nine months of this year with 34.4 billion lek or more than 80 percent of the total, followed by Germany with 2.5 billion lek and Greece with 2.2 billion lek.
Italian Development Cooperation
The Italian Development Cooperation has been acting in a number of areas, aligning its interventions to the national and sectoral strategies adopted by the Albanian government and designing them in coordination with the other donors. With a financial commitment of 300 million euroa and with more than 70 initiatives, Italy is today the first bilateral donor and overall the third after the European Union and the World Bank. The Italian Development Cooperation supports the ongoing processes of institutional strengthening and socio-economic growth and assists Albania on its path to European Union membership, as stated in the new Development Cooperation Protocol for the years 2010-12. The projects are agreed on a multi-annual basis and focus on rural development, infrastructures rehabilitation, improvement of socio-sanitary services, SMEs, financing and, more generally, on private sector development. The projects offer a participatory approach, with particular attention to the gender perspective and environmental protection and with the active participation of the Italian local governments through the decentralized cooperation and of the Italian and Albanian civil societies through the NGOs.
