China, the second trade partner of Albania

2023-07-31 16:00:00, Opinione Edmond Laçi

It took only a few months from the lifting of anti-epidemic restrictions, as well as visa restrictions for Albanian citizens, for China to become, for the first time in recent decades, Albania's second trading partner. If during 2002 China did not even appear in the first four, where Italy (29%), Turkey (8.4%), Greece (6.9%) and Germany (6.3%) were listed, in the 6-month earlier this year, China has experienced spectacular growth, rising to second place. According to the latest INSTAT report, Italy continues to hold the first place even during 2023, with 37 percent of the total, while Greece, which until now was second, has moved two places down, leaving the place of second and third precisely to China and Turkey. The world's second largest economy already has 9.0% of total trade exchanges with Albania, while Turkey has 7.2%.

In fact, various trade relations experts had predicted a slight increase in exchanges between China and Albania. Especially after the removal of visas, on March 18 of this year. But the latest INSTAT reports have broken all predictions. Only for the month of June, China is among the first two countries where exports have grown the most, with 10.1%. As for the countries with which imports have had the greatest increase compared to June 2022, China stands by a margin in the first place, a full 50.6%. In the first 6 months of 2023 alone, imports from China have increased by almost 40%. According to sources from the General Directorate of Customs, foreign trade in goods with China increased from 33,495 million ALL for the period January-June 2022 to 46,784 for 2023. Meanwhile, during 2022, the volume of trade between the two countries reached 770 million dollars, with an increase of 17.6% compared to 2021. Even in the previous year, this volume had increased by 26%, although during 2020 it is worth it should be mentioned that China's imports from Albania increased by 102.6 percent compared to the same period a year ago.

It seems that the visa waiver, in addition to anti-epidemic restrictions, has given another boost to bilateral trade relations. Just a few days after the visa was lifted, in early April the first to arrive in China were from the plumbing equipment business, to participate in the Canton Fair. " We were not believed to be coming to China without first going through the bureaucratic procedures of obtaining visas." - says Artur Mjolli, who returned to Guangzhou in the Guangdong province of Southern China after three years of absence. Mjolli, who this time came to China together with his brother, Gazmendi and their nephew, Luis, says that "was fortunate to participate in the largest trade fair ever organized in the world, after the full resumption of pavilions with physical presence, since the time of the outbreak of COVID-19" . Meanwhile, Jovan Vruho and Pirro Puka, who have just returned to Albania after their visit to China, compare the three years of the pandemic with 3 decades. "I have come to China almost 30 times, but after the difficult period of the pandemic, we did not think that a day would come when we would return to China again, even without visas." - says Jovan Vruho, who, together with his partner, are among the biggest lighting dealers in Albania."This time Guzhen (China's largest lighting manufacturing base and one of the world's four largest lighting distribution centers) seemed better, prettier and cheaper to us." - adds Pirro Puka.

Like the above characters, many other Albanian businessmen and traders may have come to China to participate in the numerous fairs and sign import-export contracts with their Chinese counterparts. They are exactly the ones who, within 140 days since the lifting of visas, have turned China into the second largest trading partner with Albania. (CRI)