The top three business environment obstacles identified by
Albanian firms are electricity issues, competitors’ practices in the informal
sector and corruption, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said
on Thursday.
Competitors’ practices in the informal sector were the main
obstacle for small and medium enterprises, corruption was more problematic for
large firms, while tax administration and access to land were among the chief
constraints for young firms, the EBRD said in a summary of the fifth EBRD and
World Bank Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) from
across the transition region.
Although the number of power outages in a
typical month in Albania decreased from 32.8 in 2007 to 7.8 in the latest BEEPS
round, partly owing to increased precipitation, it still exceeded the Southeast
Europe (SEE) average of 5.4, the EBRD said.
The informal sector is an
important contributor to employment and production in Albania, the EBRD
noted.
"According to the International Labour Organization, 30% of the
total workforce in the construction sector is employed informally," the EBRD
said.
"Discrepancies in Albania’s national accounts suggest that the
informal sector accounted on average for 36.2% of GDP over the period
1996-2012," the EBRD said, adding that this leads to tax revenue losses, a lack
of labour protection and unfair competition among firms.
According to the
survey, although relatively few Albanian firms applied for construction-related
permits, almost one-third of the firms that did said that an informal gift or
payment was expected or requested during the application process, well above the
SEE average of 18.8%.