According to a survey of Monitor magazine with over 18,000 small debtor businesses, most of them have gone bankrupt so badly that they do not have to pay up to $ 500.
The leader of the "Monitor" magazine, Ornela Liperi, says that the current model of the Albanian economy has simply failed, with a handful of powerless small businesses and few large non-manufacturing businesses.
"Most businesses, over 90 percent of them are micro businesses with 1 to 4 employees. These businesses can not survive anymore. If you go out on the street, you see endless shops closed in every neighborhood corner.Larger ventures have been organized and opened up a chain of supermarket and shopping malls. This is a model that does not bring more sales "- says Mrs. Liperi.
Major ventures are also the majority of trade initiatives, foreign oil sales and redistribution of imported goods, which expose the currency abroad, and in Albania no manufacturing ventures are opening up which produce jobs, as all countries in the region.
The Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Nikolin Jaka, hopes to discuss the many business problems with the newly established ministry of entrepreneurship to provide more support to manufacturing enterprises and a review of the fiscal system because Albania has higher than Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and almost the same as Serbia.
"There has been a downturn for tourism VAT, which is an extremely positive signal and was well received by tourism entrepreneurs. I hope that there will be a drop in VAT for other sectors such as agro-processing and other food-producing industries, because it also gives to these industries an opportunity to develop and move forward" - says Mr. Jaka.
This kind of economy that Albania currently has is not competitive and unprepared for opening up markets and regional integration, experts say, because the countries of the region have more organized industry and agriculture than Albania.
Mrs. Liperi thinks the regional economic integration as complementary cooperation, where each country is introduced with its competitive advantages, not to quarrel for the same potatoes or bricks, milk or the same foods.
"Albania was not ready to join the WTO. Even today it lacks economies of scale, there is no competitive price, and kicked by imports. So there is a pull behind all processing industries. In the list of the largest companies there is no long-term processing industry in order to generate currency. Meanwhile, Albania is an importer at a very high rate. We have so many problems within the country that the opening up with the region will be more destructive for domestic businesses, if it is done so," Mrs Liperi said.
The most problematic sector is currently the processing industry, while the new capital is going to be used again in the construction sector, which is characterized
with running cycles and can exhaust.
Jaka says Albania should seek EU subsidies for livestock and farming and take great care with initiatives for regional integration, because each country is maintaining its own physiognomy.
According to him, Albanian businesses can go bankrupt by excessive liberalization or the opening up of trade borders, from were come the products the produce by themselves.
"Every investor has the right to seek protection of his own products and Albanian production. It is normal that this is and should be the philosophy of every state and every policy making in drafting economic development strategies. If we do not have local production in a time when we have the potentials, then we remain totally dependent on the basket of potato products," says Mr. Jaka.
Business circles and economic observers said that Albania still lacks protective measures against domestic production, the measures being taken by any open or hidden state.
On the other hand, businesses are hampered by the frequent change of economic laws and taxes because they do not have medium and long-term plans./Oculus News