Department of Strategy and Donor Coordination

Priority in recent years has been given to secondary and local roads in the network, establishment of an
adequate road asset management system to identify priority investments in secondary and local roads, and
preparation of detailed five-year engineering projects in cooperation with the local community. Regional-level
roads were given priority, but efforts have started in agricultural areas. The Albanian Development Fund is one
of the main pushers of rural road projects to improve living conditions in these areas and integrate them in the
country’s social and economic life. Figure 35 shows the number of rural roads built in the different regions of
the country between 2005 up until the present.
597.07 km of rural roads were completed during the period 2005–2009. Public investment for agricultural
and rural development continued its increasing trend this year, fourteen per cent higher than in 2007. Total
investments in 2005–2009 amount to 110 billion ALL (about 1.2 billion USD) or three times more than all the
investments of 33 billion ALL committed in rural areas in 2002–2004. 1,607 km roads were built during this
recent four-year period with an investment fund of 57 billion ALL.
Investment in rural roads increased from 500 million ALL in 2004 to seven billion ALL in 2008, a fourteenfold
increase.
Figure 35. Rural roads built by qarks 2005–2009
80.00
74.46
70.00
60.00
50.00
40.00
30.00
32.71
63.42
31.50
62.98
38.87
42.96
51.28
49.31
51.80
44.98
52.80
20.00
10.00
0.00
Berat Dibër Durrës Elbasan Fier Gjirokastër Korçë Kukës Lezhë Shkodër Tiranë Vlorë
Source: Albanian Development Fund
3.4.4 agriculture
Indicator: Productivity in agriculture and agro-processing
Important legislation was adopted in agriculture and the food sector, aligning Albanian standards to those of
the EU, with implementation of legislation and regulations in compliance with EU acquis and the SAA, thus
ensuring a legal foundation on which European standards can be guaranteed by government in the production,
processing and marketing of food.
Gross agricultural production increased by 6.5 billion ALL in 2008, or by 4.5 per cent compared to 2005,
orchards grew by 23 per cent and livestock production by 5.2 per cent. Agro-industrial production grew by
nine billion ALL, an increase of 19 per cent, while fruit production recorded the largest increase of all, at 33.3
per cent, and meat 19.4 per cent.
Investments in technology are increasing every year compared to investments for construction purposes,
indicating that quantitative improvements are being matched with quality, with upgrading of the industry’s
technological level. In recent years there has been increased funding from investors and bank loans, with the
milk processing industry receiving the bulk of investments, though flour and bread production has fallen.
Agricultural, livestock and agro-industrial production increased considerably between 2005 and 2008, as
shown in Figure 36.
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