Economy minister told conference participants to invest in mining and energy as areas that offer great potential in Albania.
Albanian Economy Minister Dritan Prifti urged foreign investment in key sectors of Albania’s economy – energy and mining — in his speech at this week’s Southeastern European Cooperation Conference in Turkey.
Prifti presented a picture of Albania’s economic development and said the country has some of the best investment climates in Europe, according to a statement by the Economy Ministry.
“Albania is an excellent place for investments and profits and is very friendly to foreign investment,” Prifti said. “We offer more suitable environment for business, such as tax reduction, reduction of bureaucracy, open economy and free markets. These have been the mechanisms behind the economic growth in the country.”
Prifti also said Albania is a “one stop shop for energy and mines,” urging investors to invest in those areas.
While in Turkey, Prifti also met with representatives of the Turkish government and business community.
He told them Turkish investments in Albania are multiplied for a short time, while trade and economic cooperation has increased significantly.
“If five years ago Turkish investments were about 45 million dollars, today they account for about 1 billion dollars, while Albania-Turkey trade volume picked up to the figure of 350 million dollars,” he said.
An important area of cooperation between Albania and Turkey is energy. Of particular importance is the continuation of cooperation on projects of transmission of natural gas passing through Turkey with the aim to link Albania with regional and international networks of gas, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
The Southeast European Cooperative Initiative holds periodic meetings like that in Istanbul this week It aimed at strengthening peace, democracy and the economy in the hopes that the newfound stability can be supported by those countries who not so long ago were the perpetrators of volatility.
