Albania Smart Capital

This activity will help Albania to increase integration with the West by improving its business environment and promoting market-oriented economic growth, thus creating more opportunities for U.S. companies and investors and sustaining America's competitive economic advantages.

The government of Albania must work to remove regulatory constraints that block healthy competition and private sector growth, and increase foreign direct investment.

Further development of small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs), primarily (though not exclusively) in the tourism and agriculture sectors will generate economic growth in poor regions plagued by low competitiveness, lack of compliance with international standards, and limited access to finance, among other problems.

Such constraints challenge Albania's ability to expand economic benefits across the country, particularly in rural areas outside of the capital.