Nearly all enterprises (96%) in Albania now use information and telecommunication technology, more than three times as many as in 2012, reports the country’s Ministry for Innovation and Public Administration. Increasing ICT use, including by public administrations, is one of the main goals of the current government.
In recent years, Albania has created many eGovernment services, including for business registration, notarial services, building permits, payments and taxes. This is one of the reasons companies have embraced the use of ICT, the ministry said in a statement.
Mobile Internet
It is not just companies that are rapidly embracing ICT. A December 2015 report by Eurostat records Albania as having the highest ratio of mobile phone subscriptions - an average of 1 686 subscriptions per 1 000 inhabitants.
“Between 2004 and 2014 there was rapid growth in the ratio of mobile phone subscriptions per inhabitant in the enlargement countries. The fastest expansion was in Albania, where the number of subscriptions per inhabitant rose four-fold, while the ratio more than doubled in all other enlargement countries”, Eurostat writes. The statistical office of the European Communities adds that in 2012, only 14% of households had Internet access.
Next month, Eurostat plans an update of its report on ICT use in the EU’s enlargement countries.
Albania is an EU Candidate country since June 2014.
More information:
Announcement by Albania’s Ministry for Innovation and Public Administration
Eurostat article (December 2015)