In a statement released on Wednesday, the Albanian business Association Konfindustria expressed a severe concern upon the lack of equilibrating policies form the Economy ministry related to the Interim Agreement. This agreement that started being implemented on december1 of this year, has the potential to threaten large investments of Albanian businesses especially of the food industry due to the open market which brings along fierce competition. Albanian industries are relatively young and their technology can be no match for the developed countries of Western Europe thus they need some special support from the state to survive the new situation.
Albanian companies also operate in a environment where loans are very costly and energy is quite expensive but the lack of support form government is still a major problem. Konfindustria mentions also the case of governments in other EU member states that designed appropriate measures to protect their business form the negative impact of integration. According to Konfindustria the Albanian government has shown very negative signs in designing the legal packages related to business such as:
נnot balancing the customs fees annulment for ready products with the same measure for raw material from EU and tertiary markets
נnot adopting the experienced laws that were designed in European states for differentiated quantity-based tax
נthe unfair categorizing of agricultural fixed costs while the same imported products have easier conditions
נthe lack of appropriate studies that pinpoint the reciprocal fiscal burdens of Albania and regional partners
נthe lack of reciprocal measures within free trade agreements with CEFTA countries
נthe closing of A-type warehouses used to re-export goods. This will produce unnecessary costs to the Albanian business which will have to relocate existing inventory
נthe reinstituting of VAT and fuel related taxes which increase the production costs
Konfindustria, representing the business interests, is trying to design economic recommendation packages to fill the void of governmental policy-making in the field.
These recommendations, prepared in the professional way required by European standards, have been presented as a package of 17 requests to the Albanian government. They aim at a smoother implementation of the SAA with lower costs to local entrepreneurs.
