This would be translated into a need for more qualitative foreign direct investments, which in turn, would contribute to a steady growth of exports. To this end, taking advantage of the global environment, which is constantly searching for new markets, I would suggest a more qualitative national marketing strategy. This strategy should highlight professionally and contemporarily, all the recent incentives and the multiple opportunities Albania provides. Also, I think it is just the time to integrate even the joint regional projects into our long-term development plans. Road infrastructure, energy, communication, tourism and other areas are still underdeveloped in regional level. Therefore, I assess that regional projects of strategic nature raise the interest of domestic and foreign investors. If taken separately the economies of the region are relatively small, but altogether they form an attractive market, with more investment opportunities. In recent years, it is noticed that the penetration of foreign investments in our region is relatively small and mainly, it reflects the privatization process of important public properties. The same thing has occurred to the Albanian economy. More concretely, during 2000 – 2006, the overall foreign direct investments, according to the balance of payments statistics, are estimated to about USD 1.45 billion, about 3.5 percent of GDP realised over the same period. If we would identify the reasons why FDIs inflows are so modest, we might mention the complex problems characterising our region, while different reasons that reduce the absorbing capability of our economy exist even in the national plan.

During two latest years, commercial banks have better met the increasing demand for ALL loans, which at end of 2006 constituted 29 percent of the loans portfolio, thus evidencing a moderate extension of its share. 6  BIS Review 80/2007  Corporate credit constitutes the main share of banks’ portfolio, amounting to 66.5 percent of the total at end 2006. In annual terms, corporate credit increased by 52 percent. The credit distribution structure by use has tended to be more uniform in comparison with the previous year. Most of corporate loans (34.5 percent) have been used for purchasing machinery and equipment, while 23.2 percent of corporate loans portfolio has been used for financing investments in activity area expansion. In 2006 the household credit was 7 percent of GDP, or 33.5 percent of the total loans portfolio. More than half of loans to households (59.3 percent) have been extended for financing real estate purchases, while the financing of consumer goods purchases has also increased. The ratio of consumer loans to total household portfolio is 27.3 percent, from 20 percent in the previous year. In particular, consumer loans increased obviously during the summer holidays and during the end-year celebrations. Concerning lending to specific sectors, it should be underlined that trade remains the sector mostly credited by the banking system, by 22.4 percent of the loans portfolio. The growth rate of credit to construction has been inhibited during 2006. This sector presented temporary improvement signs during the summer, then turned back to the downward trend.