Business Reforms in Albania

22 May 2019

Doing Business reform making it easier to do business. X Change making it more difficult to do business.

- DB2019

Enforcing Contracts: Albania made enforcing contracts easier by amending the code of civil procedure to establish a simplified procedure for small claims and introduce time standards for certain court events.

- DB2018

Getting Electricity: Albania improved the monitoring and regulation of power outages by beginning to record data for the annual system average interruption duration index (SAIDI) and system average interruption frequency index (SAIFI) for all the outages lasting longer than five minutes (down from 10 minutes previously).

Getting Credit: Albania strengthened access to credit by amending the Albanian Civil Code and the Law on Securing Charges, and by adopting a new Insolvency Law. It is now possible to grant a security interest over any type of movable property – including tangible and intangible assets – and secured creditors are given absolute priority within insolvency proceedings.

Employing Workers: Albania amended legislation to reduce the maximum number of hour allowed in a workweek and to mandate that women and men be given equal remuneration for work of equal value.

- DB2017

Dealing with Construction Permits: Albania made dealing with construction permits easier by reintroducing the issuance of building permits and streamlining the process of receiving the final inspection and compliance certificate.

Getting Electricity: Albania made getting electricity easier by speeding up the process for obtaining a new connection.

Paying Taxes: Albania made paying taxes easier by introducing an online system for filing and paying taxes.

X Trading across Borders: Albania made trading across borders more difficult by introducing mandatory scanning inspections for exports and imports, which increased the time and cost for border compliance.

- DB2016

X Dealing with Construction Permits: Albania made dealing with construction permits more difficult by suspending the issuance of building permits.

Protecting Minority Investors: Albania strengthened minority investor protections by introducing legal requirements for immediate disclosure of related-party transactions to the public.

Trading across Borders: Albania made exporting easier by implementing an electronic risk-based inspection system, which reduced the time for border compliance.

- DB2015

Starting a Business: Albania made starting a business easier by lowering registration fees.

Dealing with Construction Permits: Albania made dealing with construction permits easier by resuming the issuance of construction permits and by consolidating the land permit and construction permit into a single construction development permit.

Registering Property: Albania made transferring property easier by establishing effective time limits and computerizing the records on immovable property.

X Getting Credit: Albania weakened its secured transactions system through an amendment to the Securing Charges Law that does not allow intangible assets to be secured with a nonpossessory pledge.

X Paying Taxes: Albania made paying taxes more costly for companies by increasing the corporate income tax rate. |

- DB2014

Paying Taxes: Albania made paying taxes easier by allowing corporate income tax to be paid quarterly.

- DB2013

Starting a Business: Albania made starting a business easier by making the notarization of incorporation documents optional.

Paying Taxes: Albania made paying taxes easier for companies by abolishing the vehicle tax and encouraging electronic filing for taxes.

- DB2012

X Dealing with Construction Permits: In Albania dealing with construction permits became more difficult because the main authority in charge of issuing building permits has not met since April 2009.

Registering Property: Albania made property registration easier by setting time limits for the land registry to register a title.

- DB2011

Paying Taxes: Albania made it easier and less costly for companies to pay taxes by amending several laws, reducing social security contributions and introducing electronic filing and payment.

- DB2010

Starting a Business: Albania made business start-up easier by making registration electronic and enhancing capacity at the registry, reducing the minimum capital requirement and eliminating the requirement to register at the chamber of commerce.

Trading across Borders: Albania reduced the time needed for customs clearance of imports by implementing the ASYCUDA World electronic data interchange system and by purchasing scanners.

Resolving Insolvency: Albania improved its insolvency process through a new insolvency law introducing statutory time limits during the insolvency procedure, specifying professional qualifications for insolvency administrators, establishing an agency to regulate the profession of administrators and introducing a simplified insolvency procedure for small businesses

- DB2009

Starting a Business: Albania made starting a business easier by consolidating tax, health insurance and labor registration into a single application, allowing online publication of the incorporation notice and reducing the registration cost.

Getting Credit: Albania improved access to credit information by establishing its first credit bureau.

Protecting Minority Investors: Albania strengthened investor protections by introducing approval and disclosure requirements for related-party transactions and by reinforcing directors’ duties and available remedies in cases where related-party transactions are harmful to the company.

Paying Taxes: Albania made paying taxes less costly for companies by reducing the corporate income tax rate.

- DB2008