ADVANCING ALBANIA’S ECONOMIC POTENTIAL
Regional policy needs to be agreed by the Government, embedded in the relevant legislation (first and foremost any Law on Regional Development and Cohesion), and needs to be the basis on which the National Strategy/Plan of Regional Development will be developed, if Albania’s ambition to be in a position to become a member of the European Union in the near future is to be achieved.
Effective Regional Policy in Albania is based on the principle of integrated territorial (place based) approach, which is:
- tailored to local conditions
- focused on endogenous potential, territorial resources and knowledge
- powered by implementation of interventions aimed at addressing development challenges.
This follows the idea of:
- Strong public interventions enhancing the competitiveness of regions and unlocking the growth processes through better use of competitive advantages and development potentials,
- Departure from the model of short-term grants distributed by order from superior authority “for the most disadvantaged areas” to the model of long-term, decentralised development policies aimed at promotion of all regions,
- Departure from dispersed interventions to more selective and focused investments on spatial areas based on ‘development partnerships’ between local self-government units and key ‘’Social Partners’ having mutual and interdependent needs.
To download the ‘Policy Paper for Regional Development’ document click below.