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See News (22 April 2019)

The European Commission said it expects Albania to improve its labour market quality and target active employment policies, including upskilling of adults and vocational education and training as a key challenge of the economic reform programme for the EU candidate country.

Another challenge is tapping renewable and energy saving potentials and fully opening the energy market, the European Commission (EC) said in an assessment document published last week.

The Albanian economy is hampered by the inefficiency of its energy market and the insecurity of its energy supply, the Commission noted, adding that the country depends almost exclusively on hydro power for its electricity generation (98%), which has a positive contribution to decarbonising its electricity sector but makes it highly vulnerable to unfavourable hydro logical conditions in the summer, as well as to the impact of climate change.

"Albania has the potential to become an important tourist destination in Europe, but the sector remains underdeveloped," the EU's executive body said, adding that ensuring sustainable development of the tourism sector remains a challenge. 

The tourism sector in Albania has emerged as a significant contributor to growth with almost 6 million inbound tourists in 2018 compared to 4 million in 2015 (4.7 million in 2016, 5.1 million in 2017) and directly generated 8.5% of GDP in 2017, the Commission noted, adding that the sector, together with the satellite services, contributes an estimated 26.2% to GDP and 24.1% to total employment, it added.

The Commission expects Albania’s economic growth to accelerate to 4.5% by 2021 based on strong private domestic demand. The country's GDP is expected to grow by 4.3% in 2019 and 4.4% in 2020, from 4.2% in 2018, the European Commission said.

Albania was granted EU candidate status in 2014 and hopes to launch membership negotiations later this year.

https://seenews.com/news/ec-expects-albania-to-improve-labour-market-pursue-active-employment-policies-651438