Publication: Creating Markets in Albania: Taking Advantage of New Trade and Investment Opportunities for a More Robust Private Sector - Country Private Sector Diagnostic
Loading...
Files in English
254 downloads
106 downloads
209 downloads
Date
2022-06
ISSN
Published
2022-06
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Despite a challenging transition period and a string of adverse shocks, in recent decades Albania has made major strides in raising per capita income and integrating into the world economy. A dynamic private sector has become the engine of Albania’s economic development, and its increasing role continues to offer opportunities for expanding the country’s economic base and promoting faster and more diversified export-oriented growth. Albania is endowed with considerable economic assets, including a strategic geographical position, exceptional natural beauty, and abundant renewable and nonrenewable resources. A politically stable environment, improving governance indicators, and a record of dependable macroeconomic policies have supported the process of European Union (EU) accession, which offers a wide array of opportunities for the development of the Albanian private sector. Because a small domestic labor pool and consumer market limit the potential for economies of scale, sustaining Albania’s economic expansion will require intensifying its integration with the global economy. Despite decades of progress, Albania continues to face serious structural and policy challenges. The country’s economic expansion has not been matched by commensurate improvements in productivity. In this context, the World Bank Group has prepared the following country private sector diagnostic (CPSD) to assist the authorities in their efforts to leverage Albania’s geographic location, natural assets, and improved institutional and policy framework to promote diversification, competitiveness, and robust private-sector-led growth. The analysis highlights the importance of improving the business environment while stepping up investments in technology and innovation. The report explores three critical sectors for accelerating and diversifying growth: agribusiness and food processing, tourism, and automotive manufacturing.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“International Finance Corporation. 2022. Creating Markets in Albania: Taking Advantage of New Trade and Investment Opportunities for a More Robust Private Sector - Country Private Sector Diagnostic. Country Private Sector Diagnostic;. © International Finance Corporation. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37868 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication A Harvest of Practical Insights(Washington, DC, 2012)This IFC SmartBook is a compilation of sixteen IFC SmartLessons that presents practical lessons learned by staff from across the IFC and the World Bank on approaches for engaging in agriculture that have led to success. Agribusiness is a crucial economic sector, for food security of course, for managing water stress and ecosystem services, but also as a source of employment in emerging markets. The report includes the following lessons. Sowing the seeds of sustainability : a case project with Unifrutti, IFC, and smallholder banana farmers in the Philippines, by Natalie Macawaris, Colin Taylor, and Carla Zamora-Galinato. Harvesting the fruits of your hard work, frustration, and patience : implementing an agribusiness project in Kandahar, Afghanistan, by Hazem Hanbal and Selcuk Tanatar. Taking Haitian agriculture to the cloud : implementing google apps for government at the ministry of agriculture, by Diego Arias and Nicolas Weber. Fish farmers meet new technology: raising the aquaculture productivity of small farmers in Assam, by Grahame Dixie and Manivannan Pathy. Grain by grain : from Punjab to global - lessons from the breadbasket of India, by Jay Lurie and Neeraj Gupta. From crisis response to sustainable strategy : addressing food security in Nepal, by Gayatri Acharya and Mirella Hernani. Adapting to climate change in Bangladesh : stress-tolerant seeds for stress-prone regions, by Anika Ali and Mrinal Sircar. Assessing the carbon benefits of improved land management technologies, by Ademola Braimoh. The fun and the defiance of innovation : going redd in the forests of Mexico, by Graciela Reyes Retana, María Carolina Hoyos, and Laurent Debroux. More than just hot air : carbon market access and climate-smart agriculture for smallholder farmers, by Johannes Woelcke. Go lite ! Increasing scale and impact by combining diagnostics and training lessons from the Ukraine food safey project, by sarah ockman. Keeping it fresh! : how new packaging and distribution improved the fruit and vegetable supply chain in Ukraine, by fedir rybalko and ebbe johnson. To WII or not to WII? : practical lessons from implementing weather index insurance for agriculture, by the Agricultural Risk Management Team of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department of the World Bank. Supporting smallholders while promoting farmer-controlled cooperatives in china, by Achim Fock and Jun Zhao. Connecting fruit suppliers and processors : a comprehensive approach in Ukraine, by Oksana Varodi. It's all about teamwork : unlocking opportunities for agribusiness in Ukraine, by Alberto Criscuolo and Shaela Rahman.Publication Technology Absorption by Innovative SMEs : Knowledge Economy Forum VII, Ancona, Italy(Universita Politecnica delle marche, Rome, and the World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009)These proceedings highlight the key findings and public policy lessons that emerged from the Knowledge Economy Forum VII (KEF VII) on Technology Absorption by Innovative Small and Medium Enterprises, held in Ancona, Italy on June 17-19, 2008. Technology Absorption by Innovative Small and Medium Enterprises was the focal theme of the KEF VII held in Ancona, Italy on June 17-19, 2008. The Ancona Forum was the seventh in a series of flagship events organized by the Private and Financial Sector Development Department in the Europe and Central Asia Region of the World Bank (ECSPF). The 2008 Forum was organized to exchange experiences among global leaders, policymakers, academics and practitioners in ECA countries that can contribute to accelerating the transition to an increasingly knowledge-based economy.Publication Promoting Enterprise-led Innovation in China(World Bank, 2009)China has made remarkable gains in industrialization and development. Over the past three decades, it has maintained gross domestic product (GDP) growth of about 9 percent per year and lifted more than 400 million people out of poverty. Entering the 21st century, China is determined to ensure the sustainability of its economic and social development, to which the innovativeness of business enterprises is critical. In 2006, the government of China laid out a strategy of enterprise-led indigenous innovation. In implementing this strategy, Chinese enterprises must cope with two severe challenges arising from the current stage of development. First, they must derive their competitiveness increasingly from innovativeness. Second, while they are innovating, they must also create jobs to keep the Chinese labor force employed. The realization of China's vision to promote enterprise-led innovation will entail concerted actions by government, the corporate sector, and the financial sector. What can the government do? The four basic recommendations of this report are to pursue a balanced strategy, to create the right incentives, to build the capacity of the private sector, and to strengthen the ecosystem for the venture capital (VC) industry.Publication Responsible Debt Collection in Emerging Markets(Washington, DC, 2012)Emerging market economies have been experiencing high credit growth and high delinquency rates amongst retail banking customers in recent years. However, collections practices have not always kept pace with this rapid growth; many collectors still rely on relatively unstructured processes and weak oversight frameworks. It is therefore important to consider how fair and ethical treatment of borrowers can be better promoted in these markets. To this end, International Finance Corporation (IFC) commissioned a study in 2009 to examine the question of what guiding principles should financial institutions follow to raise their responsible and ethical standards in collections. IFC has subsequently commissioned Oliver Wyman to study existing global retail debt collections practices and recommend tangible actions that lenders and collectors can take to promote responsible and ethical standards in the field. The conclusions of this study are based on field research conducted by IFC and Oliver Wyman, industry experts analysis and opinion, and a survey of institutions in 20 emerging markets.Publication Fostering Technology Absorption in Southern African Enterprises(World Bank, 2011-09-16)This book seeks to understand how firms in southern Africa absorb technology and how policy makers can hurry the process along. It identifies channels of technology transfer and absorption through trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) and constraints to greater technology absorption, and it discusses policy options open to the government and the private sector in light of relevant international experience. The book is based on case studies of sectors and enterprises selected in four countries: Lesotho, Mauritius, Namibia, and South Africa. The relationship between technology absorption and catch-up growth is particularly relevant to southern Africa because those countries are facing tremendous competitiveness challenges and must rely on greater technology absorption to raise productivity and strengthen competitiveness to gain ground in the global market. An increased market share can then generate faster growth and create more jobs. Therefore, catch-up growth sustained by technological progress and productivity growth is the fundamental solution to unemployment and poverty alleviation. Southern African firms use multiple channels for technology absorption. For example, South African auto component firms entered technology agreements with global players to meet the demanding product standards required for export. Even after the global crisis in 2009, those who licensed technologies still spent 2.23 percent of their sales revenue on royalties. In Namibia, the meat-processing industry has made continuous efforts to upgrade technology, including the recent investment in radio frequency identification technology to trace cattle. In fish processing, companies use state-of-the-art production technologies, including electronic software to record and monitor production processes, intelligent portioning equipment, and sophisticated freezer systems. In the breweries sector, state-of-the-art technology is used at every stage of production and in the marketing and distribution processes.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Sovereign Debt and the Financial Crisis : Will This Time Be Different?(World Bank, 2011)The financial crisis of 2008 has rekindled interest in sovereign debt crises among policy makers and scholars. History shows that lending booms typically end in busts, with the beneficiaries of debt in the upswing often forced to default or reschedule their debts in the downswing (Sturzenegger and Zettelmeyer 2006). The impact of the first financial crisis of the 21st century on capital flows to developing countries and the signs of stress in debt markets of several European countries in the first half of 2010 raise the inevitable question, Are author about to witness a new generation of sovereign debt crises? This book addresses this question. It adopts an integrated approach by drawing on both theoretical research and experience from professionals involved in technical assistance in this area. It documents recent improvements in macroeconomic policies and debt management practices, which to a large extent explain the resilience of developing and emerging economies, and identifies challenges ahead and areas that require special attention from policy makers.Publication The Korean Financial Crisis of 1997 : Onset, Turnaround, and Thereafter(World Bank, 2011)This book chronicles how Korea dealt with and overcame the crisis over time. The book is organized into eleven chapters. Chapter one outlines the troubling financial market conditions at home and abroad before the crisis. Chapter two then delves into the origin of the crisis and offers analyses on the shortcomings of the Korean economy and the instability of the international financial system. In chapter three, policy measures the government executed in the wake of the onset of the crisis are described and analyzed. Chapter four probes the steps taken to reduce the risk of sovereign insolvency in the face of the cool market reaction to the initial package of crisis response measures announced by the International Monetary Fund in December 1997. Chapter five describes the background within which the government established the institutional framework necessary for corporate, financial, and labor market restructuring between December 1997 and April 1998. The government efforts to secure additional foreign currency liquidity through the markets and to devise initiatives to counter the massive unemployment are discussed in detail. In chapter six, the situation during May and June 1998 is explored with a focus on the closure of nonviable corporate and financial companies and the efforts to drive down interest rates and revive credit flows. This is followed, in chapter seven, by an analysis of the first phase of financial sector restructuring, which started in the third quarter of 1998, and the measures adopted to shore up potential growth and cope with the pressing problem of unemployment. Chapters eight and nine deal separately with the restructuring of the top five chaebols (the large family-controlled and family-run groups that dominate business in Korea), the economic stimulus packages applied during the fourth quarter of 1998, the efforts to restore financial market stability and economic growth, and the initial phase of foreign exchange liberalization measures, which were implemented during the first half of 1999. Chapter ten then discusses the situation during the second half of 1999, with a particular focus on the collapse of the Daewoo business group, including the steps taken to contain the resulting fallout, as well as measures aimed at expanding the economic recovery. Chapter eleven, the final chapter, offers a diagnosis of the Korean economy, along with an analysis of the policy implications and the responses for the future.Publication Doing Business 2020(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2020)Doing Business 2020 is the 17th in a series of annual studies investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. It provides quantitative indicators covering 12 areas of the business environment in 190 economies. The goal of the Doing Business series is to provide objective data for use by governments in designing sound business regulatory policies and to encourage research on the important dimensions of the regulatory environment for firms.Publication 2022 Mini Grids for Half a Billion People(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-09-22)This book is packed with actionable information for decision-makers, and it is the World Bank’s most comprehensive and authoritative publication on mini grids to date. The objective of this comprehensive knowledge package is to present road-tested options and examples from the leading edge of mini grid development. Decision-makers can draw on these options and examples to scale up mini grid deployment in their own contexts. By acknowledging different national approaches to mini grids and providing context-specific considerations for implementation, this suite of knowledge products offers an adaptive approach to helping countries achieve their electrification targets. The book is structured as follows. The overview presents a global market outlook for mini grids and introduces the 10 building blocks that need to be in place if mini grids are to be scaled up in any country. These building blocks also represent the 10 frontiers for innovation for the sector, where, with disruptive digital solutions across all 10 frontiers, the services offered to end users can be raised to a level substantially better than what would be possible with alternatives. In the Handbook, the terms “building blocks” and “frontiers” are used interchangeably. Chapters 1–10 present the 10 building blocks in detail and answer the question how do we scale up mini grid deployment to connect half a billion people by 2030 Chapter 11 is our call to action.Publication Business Ready 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-03)Business Ready (B-READY) is a new World Bank Group corporate flagship report that evaluates the business and investment climate worldwide. It replaces and improves upon the Doing Business project. B-READY provides a comprehensive data set and description of the factors that strengthen the private sector, not only by advancing the interests of individual firms but also by elevating the interests of workers, consumers, potential new enterprises, and the natural environment. This 2024 report introduces a new analytical framework that benchmarks economies based on three pillars: Regulatory Framework, Public Services, and Operational Efficiency. The analysis centers on 10 topics essential for private sector development that correspond to various stages of the life cycle of a firm. The report also offers insights into three cross-cutting themes that are relevant for modern economies: digital adoption, environmental sustainability, and gender. B-READY draws on a robust data collection process that includes specially tailored expert questionnaires and firm-level surveys. The 2024 report, which covers 50 economies, serves as the first in a series that will expand in geographical coverage and refine its methodology over time, supporting reform advocacy, policy guidance, and further analysis and research.