Instruments for the regional sustainable development in Albania - Instruments for supporting the implementation of regional development policy

AuthorManjola Duli
Pages251-259
Academic Journal of Business, Administration, Law and Social Sciences
IIPCCL Publishing, Tirana-Albania
Vol. 2 No. 2
July 2016
ISSN 2410-3918
Acces online at www.iipccl.org
251
Instruments for the regional sustainable development in Albania - Instru-
ments for supporting the implementation of regional development policy
PhD (C.) Manjola Duli
Abstract
RegionaldevelopmentisacrosscuingissueThecurrentapproachtoregionaldevelopment
in Europe is place-based, in which multidimensional analyses are carried out and strategies
andpoliciesdevelopedinrelationtoterritoriallydenedsocioeconomicandenvironmental
factors. In our study we have largely followed this approach, looking at long-term changes in
a wide set of development indicators across Albania. As a result several regional typologies
are presented as well as broad recommendations for regional development policy formula-
tion. Albania has two levels of governance: national, county (qarks) and local (municipalities).
Directly elected bodies exist at central and local levels. Qark councils consist of delegated
representatives from local units. Albania’s territory is organized into 12 counties and 61 lo-
cal government units. There are neither administrative nor self-governing regions in Albania
correspondingtoNUTSlevelclassicationQarksaretheequivalentofNUTSlevelCur-
rentlyinAlbaniathereisnocleardenitionofadevelopmentregionIngeneralitisperceived
that qarks can be considered an appropriate level at which regional development is analyzed,
promoted and monitored. Although we have followed this concept, both due to data available
andnobeerpracticalalternativethereareclearlyotherpossibilitieswhichcouldsurfacein
the medium-term perspective, for example:
NUTS 2 delineation for Albania could lead to a situation when development issues will be-
come also relevant at the macro level – practically the number of NUTS 2 regions in Albania
could vary between 2 and 3 unless the country is allowed to stay one region;
Territorial and administrative reforms could lead to a much smaller number of LGUs both
at the basic municipality level and the qark level, especially that from a general RD perspec-
tive some of the qarks represent very small units, both in terms of population and size of the
regional economy.
As Albania is in its early stages of integration into the European Union, there is clearly a need
to develop a domestic socio-economic cohesion (regional development) policy. This can only
be done through detailed studies of the current situation, the prevailing development trends
andpaernsandconsequentlyawidediscussiononhowtobeststimulateregionaldevelop-
ment actions.
Keywords: regional, development, Albania, instruments.
Introduction
Regional disparities in Albania are currently not extreme and non-uniform. While the
country has several large structural development gaps in relation to the European
Union and other candidate and potential candidate countries, internal disparities
are considered moderate Of course there are acute dierences between Tirana
and the least developed qarks of Diber and Kukes. However, due to the intensive
migratory adjustments over the last two decades as well as government’s and donors’
interventions, the amplitudes between development indicators are not extreme.

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