Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0006/00066.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 39KB | 623 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00066}
$Pretitle{298}
$Title{Albania
Chapter 8A.   Economic System}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Eugene K. Keefe, Sarah Jane Elpern, Willaim Giloane, James M. Moore, Jr., Weston White}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{percent
farms
production
collective
farm
labor
output
plan
increase
state}
$Date{1971}
$Log{Table 10.*0006601.tab
Table 11.*0006602.tab
}
Country:     Albania
Book:        Albania, A Country Handbook
Author:      Eugene K. Keefe, Sarah Jane Elpern, Willaim Giloane, James M. Moore, Jr., Weston White
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1971

Chapter 8A.   Economic System

     In mid-1970 the economy, which is wholly controlled by the Albanian
Workers' Party, approached the conclusion of the Fourth Five-Year Plan, during
which it made a further advance along the road of industrialization, in line
with the totalitarian leadership's goal of transforming the economy from the
stage referred to as agricultural-industrial to a more advanced
industrial-agricultural level. The Fourth Five-Year Plan (1966-70) actually
called for a more rapid growth of agriculture than that of industry and for an
increase in the share of agriculture in the national product by 1970. This
departure from proclaimed policy was dictated by the failure of agriculture to
meet the goals of the Third Five-Year Plan (1961-65) and by an overriding need
to increase farm production in order to reduce to the maximum extent possible
the perennial food deficit.

     Despite government efforts, the five-year plan goals for agriculture are
not being achieved, even though substantial advances in production have been
made. The agricultural output target set by the annual plan for 1970 is
significantly below the five-year plan figure for that year. By contrast, the
five-year plan goal for industrial output was reported to have been surpassed
in 1969 and to have been raised in the annual plan for 1970 substantially
above the original level.

     The basic reasons for the failure to attain the planned farm output
targets, apart from their magnitude, lie in the difficulty of inducing
peasants to relinquish age-old traditions in favor of modern scientific
farming methods and of motivating them to work industriously in a collective
farm system that they strongly reject. Although problems of adaptation and
motivation are also present in industry, the much smaller size of the
industrial labor force and the presence of foreign technicians in key areas
mitigate the difficulties and make possible a somewhat more rapid rate of
growth.

     Reliable information on Albania is scarce. Few foreigners capable of
observing and evaluating conditions objectively have been able to visit the
country in the past twenty-five years. Articles from official journals or
newspapers available in English translation, which constitute the major source
of data, provide only a partial coverage and must be used with caution because
of a lack of means for verification. Published statistics, available in detail
to 1964 and nonexistent after 1967, leave many important gaps. Because of
apparent shortcomings in the underlying statistical methods, only data in
physical terms can be accepted with some degree of assurance as to their
accuracy.

     The economy is administered through a small number of specialized
ministries, and most information about it comes from Communist sources.
Control over labor is maintained through trade unions, which constitute a
political arm of the Party (see ch. 6, Government Structure and Political
System). Economic activity is governed by a series of five-year and annual
plans prepared by the State Planning Commission in accordance with Party
directives.

     Agriculture is organized into state and collective farms, which are
dependent upon machine-tractor stations for the performance of mechanized farm
operations. Industry is poorly balanced with regard to the country's domestic
needs and is heavily oriented toward exports. Foreign trade primarily serves
the purpose of obtaining needed resources for the development of production.
Limited domestic resources are only partially developed, and the economy
depends heavily on foreign economic and technical assistance. The country's
political orientation has restricted the sources of such aid to other
Communist states, and its alignment with Communist China in the Sino-Soviet
dispute brought about the loss of Soviet support with severe repercussions to
the economy.

     After twenty-five years of forced draft economic development, the country
in 1967 was described by a correspondent of a European journal as a mixture of
the fourteenth and twentieth centuries, where oxen and buffaloes were to be
seen side by side with modern foreign-made tractors, and where a policeman
directed traffic in the main square of the capital city like a conductor
waving his baton at a nonexistent orchestra.

     After a visit in the fall of 1969, a specialist in Balkan affairs
reported that austerity and regimentation were still the rule despite a
substantial measure of economic progress achieved during the period of
independence. He also expressed the view that Albania undoubtedly remained the
poorest country in Europe but that the economic and social advances attained
could be envied by the countries of the Near East.

LABOR

     Although economic development is still in its infancy, growing concern
has been officially expressed about the adequacy of the labor force to meet
the needs of industrialization and of expanding social services without
adversely affecting agricultural production. The main cause of the incipient
labor shortage is low productivity owing to a lack of industrial experience, a
low level of mechanization, and the survival of backward traditional methods
in agriculture. Officially, low productivity has been ascribed to poor labor
discipline and inefficient management arising from an inadequately developed
sense of political and social responsibility. It has also been blamed on a
failure of manpower planning and on the relaxation of central controls over
enterprise funds.

     At the end of 1969 the Central Committee of the Party adopted a decision
on means for correcting this situation. An important element of the program is
the education and political indoctrination of the workers. This task is a
major function of the trade unions, which are primarily a political arm of the
Party for the control of labor, without any significant responsibilities in
the field of labor relations (see ch. 6, Government Structure and Political
System).

     In 1967, the last year for which official employment data are available,
the working-age population comprised 932,000 persons, 739,200 of whom were
actually employed. The number of employed did not include roughly 6,000
peasants working on the private holdings still remaining in that year.
Including these peasants, the participation rate in the labor force was 80
percent.

     Two-thirds of the labor force was employed in agriculture, the remainder
in a variety of nonagricultural pursuits, chief among which were industry,
construction, trade, and education. Apart from the peasants working their own
land, farm labor included about 427,000 persons on collective farms and 64,000
on state farms. The industrial labor force of 105,300 accounted for 14.1
percent of total employment, and 40,000 construction workers, for 5.4 percent.
The nearly 32,000 workers in trade and 25,000 workers in education
constituted, respectively, 4.2 and 3.4 percent of the employed manpower.

     The officially reported labor force, which comprises non-agricultural
labor and state farm workers only, increased by 53 percent between 1960 and
1967, from 203,800 to 312,400 persons. The increase represents an annual
growth rate of 6.3 percent. At this rate, the labor force in 1970 would be
about 375,000 persons. It has been informally reported as 400,000. Collective
farm employment rose, in round numbers, from 282,000 in 1960 to 336,000 in
1966