100 million lek for SMEs, competitiveness in focus - What should be the priority sectors for the government?
Focusing on innovation and exports is seen as the only way to increase the sustainability of the Albanian economy. The 100 million lek fund is expected to support those enterprises that aim to cross borders, but how much will Albanian businesses be helped with this grant from the Albanian government?
" This is very good news for small and medium-sized businesses, because the need for liquidity and money, especially for investment in this business phase, is great, but what is worth noting is the fact that in the latest report, the Bank of Albania confirmed that last year only 7% of small and medium-sized businesses had managed to benefit from soft loans in the soft lending scheme. Which means that we have a structural, bureaucratic and administrative problem regarding this business category and the government's intervention to facilitate it, even by providing a grant, is more than welcome", says Ergis Sefa, Economics Expert.
But which sectors should have priority in the distribution of this fund?
"The first two sectors that come to mind are agriculture, which is directly related to the production of our agricultural products, as a result of the war in the Middle East, which is already having a significant effect, and the processing industries, or exporters of processing, which are having great difficulties, mainly as a result of the strengthening of the lek against the euro. Then we have other sectors, especially those related to services, tourism or even the digital sector, which are growing and need this money precisely to further improve the service or product they offer, in order to make it as competitive as possible, that is, as qualitative as possible."
While the government has made the financial means available, it remains to be seen whether this fund will manage to become a development engine for innovation, or whether it will remain again within the network of administrative difficulties that has penalized business to date.
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