SME Development Policy in Albania

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the Albanian economy has been engaged in a profound transformation from a highly centralised, Stalinist economic structure towards a market economy. The first decade of transition has seen a number of highs and lows: rapid annual growth of 8–10% for much of the period but deep recessions, accompanied by severe social instability in 1991/92 and in the first half of 1997. Considerable progress has been made in some areas of economic reform, notably small-scale privatisation and price and trade liberalisation, but progress in other areas such as enterprise reform and financial institutions has been much more sluggish (see EBRD, 1999).ⁱⁱ

This paper was presented at a workshop on “SME Development Policy in South East Europe: Promoting Regional Reconstruction and SME Networks”, University of Rijeka, September 22–23, 2000. We are grateful to participants in the workshop for helpful comments. The views expres sed in the paper are those of the authors only and should not be attributed to any institution.

For an overview of developments in Albania during the past decade, see Mançellari et al. (1996) and Vaughan-Whitehead (1999).

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development