TIRANA, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Albanian government is determined to make the country attractive to foreign investors by offering a favorable business climate with low taxes and less red tape, Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama said Monday a business forum with Italian investors.
Albania's capital hosted Monday Albania-Italy Business Forum, which brought together over 350 participants including 200 companies from Italy, 14 industrial associations and three banks.
The forum was preceded by the launch of the first Italy-Albania trade mission that aimed at increasing the already well-established economic cooperation between the two countries and to expand business and investment opportunities for Italian businesses with a focus on three sectors in particular agro-business, energy and infrastructure, according to a finance ministry statement.
Rama also invited Italian companies to invest in tourism sector which is considered a priority sectors of Albania.
"Tourism is a major sector offering tremendous investment opportunities. A lot remains to be done in this area, while demand keeps growing and it is unattainable in terms of the supply. Tour operators turn down five percent of the demand," Rama said.
He addressed the investors saying that they should feel safe about investing here, because, according to Rama, Albania has a favorable legislation for tourism.
The government head stated that Albania has great growth potential and offers ample investment opportunities in its energy, oil, mining, agriculture, agro-food and food-processing industries.
PM also announced that government was drafting an incentives package for investments in agro-tourism based on the Italian model.
On the other hand, Italy's Deputy Minister of Economic Development Ivan Scalfarotto, heading the Italian business delegation, stressed that Italy remained Albania's primary trade partner, with exchanges significantly increasing over the past years.
"The trade exchanges between the two countries have increased by 80 percent over the past ten years," Scalfarotto said.
According to the Albanian National Institute of Statistics, INSTAT, trade between the two countries totaled two billion euros in the first 10 months of 2017.
