Albania, Poland move closer to step up cooperation
Story Highlights
- "Albania is an open country to investors, your ideas and projects. It is open for your cooperation and I believe we have to avail of this opportunity," Polish PM Beata Szydlo told a group of businesspeople accompanying her during the Albania visit last weekend
Related Articles
TIRANA, Dec. 12 - Albania and Poland are moving closer to step up cooperation as one of the EU's most dynamic economies and success stories has unveiled investment plans in Albania and Albania hopes to attract more Polish tourists.
Speaking at an Albania-Poland economic forum in Tirana, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo reconfirmed Poland's support to Albania's EU bid and urged stronger economic cooperation.
"Albania is an open country to investors, your ideas and projects. It is open for your cooperation and I believe we have to avail of this opportunity," the Polish PM told a group of businesspeople accompanying her during the Albania visit last weekend.
“Poland and Albania have many things in common. We share a story of friendship and cooperation and something else we have in common is our common future. Albania has the ambition to join the EU and Poland has always and will always support Albania,” said Szydlo.
“However, our cooperation is not only at a political level. It is very important for us to make sure that our economic ties are stronger so that the value of trade exchanges increases. This is also in the interest of the Polish economy," she added.
Poland hopes its offer in the field of energy, production of machinery, agriculture equipment, fruit and vegetables and processed food products will be welcomed by Albanian customers.
The Polish Prime Minister said mining, energy, tourism, environment protection and protection hold the greatest potential for Polish-Albanian cooperation.
Speaking at the trade forum, Prime Minister Edi Rama expressed the Albanian government's willingness to offer easier procedures for Polish investment in tourism, energy and manufacturing.
“Albania is becoming a more attractive tourist destination and figures unveil it as a new Mediterranean attraction. It is not a massively explored destination and this makes it even more attractive, but of course we need quality investment to create optimal conditions so that this destination serves as many tourists as possible,” Rama told the economic forum which concluded with the signing of two cooperation deals between the Albanian and Polish investment agencies and unions of chambers of commerce.
"Albania is a country with huge hydropower potential. We are Europe's second richest country in water resources after Norway and hydroelectricity is still massively unexplored. Big energy companies are present and Albania's participation in the Trans Adriatic Pipeline project makes our country more attractive as far as energy investment is concerned,” he added.
The two countries hold considerable potential to further increase the current low levels of trade exchanges and foreign direct investment.
Polish foreign direct investment in Albania is estimated at only €2 million while the volume of trade exchanges between the two countries, overwhelmingly dominated by Albanian imports from Poland at about €63 million annually, according to central bank and INSTAT data.
Poland has emerged as a surprise entry in the map of tourists coming to Albania in the past few years with their number peaking at about 59,000 in 2014 and estimated to have further increased for 2016.
Poland’s state-run airline LOT has also recently expressed its interest to launch direct flights with Tirana as Albania has emerged a top 10 destination for Poles.
An annual survey conducted by the Polish Tour Operators Association, PZOT, ranked Albania’s as the Poles’ ninth favorite destination for 2015-2016, sandwiched between Portugal and Cyprus.
