International Companies Expanded Presence in Albania in 2017

TIRANA, December 19

International businesses in Albania expanded their activity during 2017. According, to the data provided by the Institute of Statistics (INSTAT) foreign businesses and joint ventures that exercise their activity in Albania, expanded by 11.6 percent in 2017.
Based on the official data, businesses and joint ventures from Italy and Greece account for 54 percent of international enterprises in Albania. In the meantime, they account for 58.7 percent of the workforce employed by foreign companies.
Moreover, the Italian and Greek companies account for 59.5 percent of exports and 50.8 percent of imports.
Further on, INSTAT confirms that 100 percent foreign-owned businesses account for 58.8 percent of the total international companies in Albania. Meanwhile, joint ventures account for 17.7 percent of companies.

Other data confirm that 66.7 percent of those joint ventures present in Albania during the previous year were from the European Union (EU). Some 11.8 percent of companies were from the Balkan countries. Meanwhile, the remaining 21.5 percent were from other regions.
The percentage of the workforce employed by international and joint ventures was 18.7 percent in 2017 compared to 16 percent in 2016.
The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow increased by 13.7 percent in 2017. By the end of 2017, FDI inflow from EU countries, respectively Greece and the Netherlands accounted for 56.9 percent of the total FDI inflow.

News Source: INSTAT