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Albania’s GDP grows 2.82 pct in first quarter of 2015

* Albania GDP grows 2.82 pct in first quarter of 2015

* Financial sector and manufacturing boost growth

(Reuters) – Albania’s economy grew 2.82 percent in the first quarter of 2015 from the same period a year before, shrugging off the impact of February floods as activity in the financial and insurance sector surged.

The Institute of Statistics also said on Thursday that gross domestic product had grown 0.32 percent in the first quarter of 2015 from the last three months of 2014.

That was in line with official forecasts for growth in 2015 despite damage to agriculture from flooding in the south of the Adriatic Sea state in February.

Last week, Albania and the International Monetary Fund cut their growth forecast to 2.7 percent from 3 percent for 2015, mainly because of lower prices in world markets for Albania’s exports of minerals and oil.

The central bank expects the economy to expand more in 2015 than 2014’s 1.89 percent although that could change if the crisis in neighbouring Greece, home to more than 600,000 Albanian migrant workers, worsens.

The financial and insurance sector led growth in the first quarter, expanding by 13 percent compared to the same period last year, with activity in the manufacturing, energy and water industries 7.64 percent higher.

Household spending fell by 1.22 percent while government expenditure fell by 0.01 percent, the Institute said.

Gas Pipeline Web Sought to Reduce Russia’s Grip on EU Supplies

European officials on Friday will take a step toward creating a web of natural gas pipelines across the region’s southeast as a way to reduce the threat of Russia choking off supplies.

Some 17 nations, more than half of them from the former Soviet bloc, will endorse an action plan to improve energy infrastructure and ultimately to ensure each of them maintain three separate sources of supply. The decision is due at a meeting of ministers in Dubrovnik, Croatia, with Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission’s vice president in charge of energy union.

The crisis in Ukraine along with Russia’s decision in December to cancel a $45 billion pipeline to Europe shocked nations from Austria to Bulgaria. The commission wants to encourage them to work together on protecting energy supply. Russia supplies 27 percent of the gas that feeds the European Union, which imports more than half its energy needs.

“There are still considerable bottlenecks and constraints in the market that make it more difficult to move alternative sources of supply around the market and cut dependence on Russia,” said Emily Stromquist, an energy analyst at the Eurasia research group in London.

European Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete, who oversees climate and energy, will join the discussions that build on a strategy outlined in February, according to his office in Brussels.

Nations Gathered

European Union nations at the talks include Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia. Those outside the union are Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Republic of Kosovo, Montenegro, Moldova and Ukraine.

South-eastern Europe is a vital part of the political jigsaw to diversify supply away from Russia. The countries in the region stand between energy-hungry markets of Western Europe and gas fields around the Caspian Sea owned by Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.

Next year, a venture that includes BP Plc and Statoil ASA plans to start work on the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, which will help to ship Azeri natural gas to Italy, Greece, Albania and Bulgaria.

The South Stream project scrapped in December would have piped gas under the Black Sea to Europe. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s alternative is building a pipeline to Turkey and then shipping gas overland to Greece.

European Plan

The EU strategy is to make gas supplies more flexible by building additional pipelines across the southeast. So long as gas can flow both ways in each of the pipelines, that would fill gaps in the network and make the system more resilient to cutoffs.

Commission officials proposed a high-level group of ministers to discuss strengthening the gas network two months after Putin canceled South Stream.

A handful of projects already are on the drawing board. The Slovak transmission operator Eustream AS has a plan to boost transit from Slovakia to south-eastern Europe through Romania. That pipeline, with a working name Eastring, could be connected to the Turkish link via Bulgaria, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said earlier this year.

Several countries also are pushing for a “Vertical Gas Corridor,” which would link Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. It would involve inter-connectors between Bulgaria and Greece and between Romania and Bulgaria.

Ministers at the talks in Dubrovnik will choose several infrastructure projects that need to be sped up. They may be eligible for financial aid from the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the EU. Investors hope that officials will agree “very concrete decisions and timelines,” according to Stromquist.

“These aren’t typically very high cost projects but their impact is considerable,” she said. “Getting additional inter-connectors into the market will certainly help improve competition and reduce Russian dependence.”

Mott MacDonald wins projects in Singapore and Albania

UK-headquartered consultancy Mott MacDonald has announced two major international environmental contract wins.

Firstly, it has been appointed to investigate the impacts of climate change on Singapore’s energy and telecommunication infrastructure. The appointment by the country’s National Environment Agency falls within the second phase of the Singapore Government’s Second National Climate Change Study, which in the first phase has already looked at climate projections for the country and the wider region up to 2100.

During the second phase, Mott MacDonald will be helping the country understand the impacts of climate change in a range of areas, including water resources and drainage, biodiversity and greenery, network infrastructure and building infrastructure, whilst recommending adaptation measures and strategies for energy and telecommunication network infrastructure and operations.

Mott MacDonald project director, Chris Preston, commented: “Singapore has been hit by several cases of extreme weather in recent years, including floods in 2013 and a dry spell in 2014. Our research will contribute towards efforts to protect the country from future extreme weather events. Mott MacDonald was appointed on this project on the basis of the team’s technical quality of methodology and their careful consideration of the challenges involved in the project, particularly surrounding model uncertainty.”

The consultancy is also set to provide technical advisory services to improve the efficiency of water resources management in the Drini-Buna and Seman rivers in Albania.

Appointed by the Albanian Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Water Administration, Mott MacDonald will be assessing availability and demand of water resources, surface and groundwater quality, and the status of the current infrastructure as part of the the river basin management plans project which is being funded by the World Bank. The findings will be used to compile priority water resources management plans and development interventions.

TAP begins construction of access roads and bridges in Albania

Construction and rehabilitation work on access roads and bridges along the pipeline’s route in Albania has begun. The Trans Adriatic Pipeline AG (TAP) hosted an inauguration ceremony near Çorovoda, attended by the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, Minister of Energy and Industry, Damian Gjiknuri, and Managing Director at TAP, Ian Bradshaw, to mark this occasion.

Construction and rehabilitation of roads and bridges

Expected to be complete in 2016, TAP will construct and rehabilitate approximately 100 km of road along the pipeline’s route, and build three new bridges whilst rehabilitating over 40 existing bridges in the regions of Korçë, Berat and Fier.

Construction is critical for TAP’s progress and economic growth in Albania

Prime Minister Rama and Minister Gjiknuri emphasized the importance of the project to Albania when speaking to an audience that included foreign diplomats, members of the Albanian parliament, representatives of local authorities and other key stakeholders.

TAP Managing Director, Ian Bradshaw, said: “TAP aims to build a modern pipeline that will safely deliver Caspian gas to Europe in early 2020. The construction of access roads and bridges in Albania is critical to our project’s progress.” He added: “The rehabilitated roads and bridges will contribute not only to the modernization of the transport infrastructure but also to transport safety. They will boost access to markets and services, thus contributing to the long-term economic growth of many Albanian regions.”

Germany lends Albania 106 mln euros ahead of Merkel visit

* Germany lends Albania 106 million euros for power, water

* Deals signed before visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel

TIRANA, July 6 – Germany lent Albania 106 million euros on Monday to back the country’s cash-strapped utilities, fund small and medium-size enterprises and bring water to rural areas.

The agreements were signed by ministers of Albania’s coalition government and Germany’s ambassador before a visit by Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday.

At the weekend, Merkel urged the western Balkan states of Albania, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to build greater political stability, to smooth their path to membership in the European Union. She will visit all three countries this week.

Her visit also comes after debt-ridden Greece voted against accepting a bailout on terms imposed by its creditors. Greek banks are active throughout the Balkans, and fears have been growing that the debt crisis could spread in the Balkans.

However, an International Monetary Fund team said last week Greece’s troubles were unlikely to spill into Albania. Three units of Greek banks controlled 15.9 percent of total assets in Albania in 2014, but unlike Macedonia and Serbia, Albania has not restricted capital transactions with Greece.

“Today is a good day … After years of preparation, we signed six important financial cooperation deals,” German Ambassador Helmut Hoffmann said after the signing.

“This creates an excellent atmosphere on the eve of the visit after two days of the Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel. Hundreds of thousands of Albanians gain from these projects.”

Most of the funds from Germany will fund the electricity sector, with 40 million euros ($44 million)going to the KESH monopoly power producer and 20 million euros for the security of hydro power dams.

Albanian Finance Minister Shkelqim Cani said Germany had helped Albania since 1988 – two years before the Iron Curtain fell – with more than 1 billion euros in aid, including its European Union and United Nations contributions.

On Sunday, Hoffmann commemorated with Albanian villagers the massacre of 107 people in eastern Albania by the German Army in World War Two in retaliation for a partisan attack, saying every German felt ashamed.

(Reuters)