World Bank pledges further support to Albania’s development

TIRANA, Jan. 23 – In an interview to TV Koha television station, World Bank Country Manager Camille Nuamah pledged further support to Abania’s development, saying that property ownership was a fundamental and key issue to resolve to help create a good business environment to attract foreign direct investment.
Nuamah said that the overall goal of the long term land administration and management program was to facilitate the development of efficient land and property markets through enhancing tenure security and improving land administration and management services.
The specific objective of the project is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of land administration and urban management through enhancing tenure security, improving urban planning, land management and development control, supporting property valuation and taxation, and financing investments in urban infrastructure and services.
She said that the computerization of the offices of real estate property registration will reduce the average time to register property transaction from 47 to 10 days; will help the municipalities to have evidence of all properties and increase the annual property tax collection by about 10 percent, beginning in the second year of the project.
This process of registration is simply a matter of time, personnel and resources because this process is quite complicated, she said.
There are 3064 property zones in the country, 80 percent of rural zones have been completed, and 131 urban of which only 29 have been completed.
Nuamah said that the lack of clear, accurate and readily accessible information on properties was often a major source of mistakes.
“Restitution is certainly an important issue to resolve in order to cultivate a vibrant land market in Albania,” she said.
The World Bank offered its continuous support to advise on legislation and practice, and to support the provision of instruments to strengthen information that goes into these processes.
“Security of property rights is a key element of a good business environment because it allows investors to reduce the level of risk involved in their undertakings. All investors manage risks as part of their investment process, but a good business environment which can lower risk to a point is critical.”