Competition in the Albanian Market

It is a fact that Albania was the last country in Eastern Europe, which began the implementation of the free market principles after 90s. So, at the beginning of the transition, the so named competition was an inevitable phenomenon of the new market even the actions that flow from it, were new to the Albanians. In the economic terms, the competition received comprehensive treatment in social life, as the previous system, generally, excluded the market from the spheres of competitiveness because Albanian market had a leading role played by the state. As the other countries of the Western Balkans region, involved in the process of European integration, the culture of competition remains a challenge for Albania. In general, the structures for the protection of competition in developing countries are at similar stages to the creation or strengthening of national competition authorities and the legal framework that applies in this area, there is a high level approach to European legislation. Little experience in the early stages, insufficient knowledge of the legal framework of market players, lack of education with the concepts of competition, difficulties of consolidating national competition authorities and incomplete enforcement of the law, remain common problems of competition authorities for developing countries. Precisely these problems pose major challenges for solutions in the way of integration of Albania into the European Union. Implementation of the legal framework for competition, deepening the independence and accountability of the institution of the Competition Authority, the awareness of market participants with the principle that competition means economic prosperity, supported by the strong inter-agency cooperation and a greater transparency public, are the main pillars of national policy document on competition. Based on the problems noticed for the absence of the legal actors on the market this project proposal analyses the necessary competition policies, economic conditions in which it is developed the actual competition law and competition policy in Albania. The main questions raised will be: what are the direct and indirect influences of the unfair competition? Which sectors face significant problems to compete the market and why? What is the innovation level and how it helps the business to become successful in Albania? Basically the research is based on the annual reports and significant studies of Ministry of Finance and many researched made by NGO’s for the region. Keywords: Economic indicators, innovation, competition analysis, sector analysis