Foreign investments in Albania are focused on energy and industry

 

 The Foreigners choose to invest their capitals mainly in two branches of the Albanian economy. The industries of energy and the extraction of raw minerals dominated foreign direct investments in Albania for the first quarter of this year. Bank of Albania data shows that these two sectors brought 185 million euros or about 65% of the total value that foreign businesses have invested in Albania during this period.

Investments in energy projects amounted to 136 million euros but fell considerably compared with the same period of the previous year. To a large extent, this reflects the decline in the volume of investments in the Trans-Adriatic pipeline. The works for this operation in the territory of Albania are towards completion.

TAP is a company registered in Switzerland and the investments from this country fell by 36% this year compared to a year before. The country that brought more foreign investment to Albania during the first quarter was the Netherlands, with 77 million euros. Dutch investments are particularly related to the construction of the Devoll Hydropower Plant. The Norwegian company "Statkraft" is building this work through a registered company in the Netherlands, so officially it turns out as a Dutch investment.

Other important investments owned by companies registered in the Netherlands are Shell, Vodafone, American Hospital" or Abcom. This has already made the Netherlands the third largest investor in Albania after Switzerland and Greece. The second most important sector for the foreign investment flow remains the extractive industry, with about 49 million euros in the first quarter of this year. In this sector, it is believed that the current and the main investment flows are generated by Bankers Petroleum and Shell.