Italy pledges to continue support to SMEs

TIRANA, May 28 – Italy has expressed its commitment to continue supporting Albanian small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) as the European lead donor in the development of Albania’s private sector. Visiting two companies operating in Durres which have benefitted from credit-lines of the Italian-Albanian programme for the development of SMEs, Economy Minister Nasip Naco called for Italian support to focus more on ICT companies.
“To our economy it is important that the beneficiaries of the credit line scheme also include ICT enterprises. These SMEs have proved especially during the past two to three years that they remain at the forefront of the business development. Their return on investment is quick and carries additional guarantee for commercial banks,” said Naco.
The beneficiary SMEs in Durres were Tetra Solution sh.p.k, an ICT company, and “Coral” sh.p.k, a seafood operator. Italian ambassador to Albania Massimo Gaiani and the director of the Italian Development Cooperation office in Tirana, Andrea Senatori participated in the site visit.
Albania has around 105,000 SMEs which contribute to 80 percent of the GDP.
Under the Italian-Albanian SME Development Program, Albanian SMEs have benefitted Euro 25 million in soft loans and Euro 2.5 million under a Guarantee Fund. The program foresees another Eur 1.7 million as a Technical Assistance component. Until now, 48 investment projects for SMEs have been financed by the credit line and around Eur 11.5 million have been disbursed.
According to an Italian-government funded study, Albanian SMEs were severely hit by the outbreak of the global crisis in late 2008, suffering decreases in demand, activity limitations, lack of liquidity to a higher extent than in other countries.
Data gathered by INSTAT from the housing and population census also measuring the number of enterprises show some 103,038 active businesses were reported at the end of 2010, down from 109,267 at the end of 2009 as revealed in INSTAT’s Albania in Figures 2010 report.
Census data show around half of 103,000 businesses were created during 2005-2009 with 50 percent of them operating in the country’s biggest Tirana and Durres regions.
More than 4/5 of SMEs in Albania operate in the services sector with 60 percent involved in the trade, bar, restaurant, hotel business.
Big enterprises employing more than 50 people contribute to 42 percent of total employment although representing a mere 1 percent of total businesses.
Some 2,739 of total enterprises in Albania are either wholly foreign owned or international joint ventures, with 64 percent of them operating in the services sector.