By IPS Correspondents
ROME, Jul 10 2000 (IPS)

Italy’s current and planned development projects in Albania will cost some 235 million dollars, according to Italian foreign relations minister Lamberto Dini.

Dini told a Chamber of Deputies commission that more than 600 Italian companies or firms in which Italian capital holds a stake have set up shop in Albania so far this year, investing a total of 300 million dollars.

Today, thanks to the more favourable climate for attracting foreign capital, new spaces for Italian industry could open up in the five-year investment plan approved by the Albanian government, the minister added.

Dini was referring in particular to Albania’s interest in accelerating works in the energy sector and highway construction.

“Work must begin quickly, with development aid credits, on projects of infrastructure for the power supply, the Tirana- Durazzo railway, and the access route to the capital,” said Dini.

In 1998, Albania was the 13th largest recipient of Italian development aid, according to the last annual report submitted to parliament by the foreign relations ministry.

Italy earmarked 250,000 dollars that year to a World Health Organisation (WHO) programme aimed at improving access to essential medicines in that country, as part of an emergency aid package.

It also implemented programmes involving the restoration of social and health services, and helped set up an information and communications network designed to improve health care.

Albania is plagued by the typical problems facing countries with an economy in transition, unable to immediately take advantage of the benefits derived from a market economy and from opening up to the Western world.

Annual per capita income is 900 dollars, with unemployment estimated at 40 percent of the labour force.

Through the Protocol of Italian-Albanian Cooperation (1998- 2000), of a total of 105 million dollars, 15 million are donations and 90 million are soft credits earmarked for the implementation of 16 projects in sectors key to the east European country’s socioeconomic development.

In particular, officials mention utilities like electricity and water, assistance for small and medium-sized companies, the restoration of essential services and protection of the environment.

Albania is one of the priorities of Italy’s development aid programme, one of whose aims is to help boost the stability of developing countries, the situation of which has a direct effect on Italy’s security, according to the year 2000 development aid guidelines.

That concern is particularly evident in aid to the Balkan countries, along with initiatives focusing on nations around the Mediterranean basin, the Horn of Africa and southern Africa.

Italian development aid also focuses on other top priorities of the international community like conservation, improving conditions for women, protecting the rights of children and the fight against drugs.

But the crux of Italy’s development aid programme is the fight against poverty.

This year, 80 percent of Italian aid will go to the Balkans (Albania and the republics of the former Yugoslavia), the Middle East (Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria), north Africa (Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco), the Horn of Africa, China and India. The remaining 20 percent will go toward Latin America, west Africa and lower priority Asian countries.

This year’s budget law allots 360 million dollars in annual donations for the foreign relations ministry’s development aid projects in the years 2000, 2001 and 2002.

It also assigns the ministry 25 million dollars for obligations to international and national bodies dedicated to development aid.

In additiona, parliament authorised the foreign ministry to use 200 million dollars in donations, bringing this year’s total donations to 560 million dollars.

A rotating fund for development aid loans to developing countries will be allotted 1.1 billion dollars for the year in progress.

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