Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0006/00067.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 25KB | 408 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00067}
$Pretitle{298}
$Title{Albania
Chapter 8B.   Industry}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Eugene K. Keefe, Sarah Jane Elpern, Willaim Giloane, James M. Moore, Jr., Weston White}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{percent
leks
production
million
industrial
industry
total
state
investment
budget}
$Date{1971}
$Log{Table 12.*0006701.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 8B.   Industry

     A few primitive plants producing consumer goods had been built before
World War II, but industrial development began only in 1949, when construction
was undertaken of a 50,000-kilowatt hydroelectric power station, a textile
mill capable of producing 22 million yards of cloth per year, and a sugar mill
with an annual capacity of 10,000 tons of sugar. Industrial construction
continued under the first and second five-year plans (1951-55 and 1956-60,
respectively) during the 1950s, with substantial financial and technical
assistance from the Soviet Union. This development was temporarily interrupted
in the wake of the political break with the Soviet Union in 1961 but was soon
resumed with aid from Communist China (see ch. 6, Government Structure and
Political System). The interruption was said by the Albanian leadership to
have retarded industrial growth by three years. Disinterested foreign
observers, however, reported that the equipment acquired with the aid of
Communist China was better suited to the needs of the country and of better
quality than that supplied by the Soviet Union.

     Among the major industrial projects completed or under construction in
1970 with the assistance of Communist Chinese technicians were: copper,
chromium, and iron-nickel mines; an oil refinery at Fier with an annual
capacity of 500,000 tons of crude oil, a 225,000-kilowatt hydroelectric power
station at Vau i Dejes on the Drin River; a 100,000-kilowatt capacity of
500,000 tons of crude oil; a 225,000-kilowatt/thermal powerplant at Fier; a
copper-ore dressing installation and a copper-wire drawing mill; a
steel-rolling mill at Elbasan; cement mills at Elbasan and Kruje; large
textile combines at Tirana and Berat; and a knit goods factory at Korce.

     Of special benefit to agriculture was the construction of a nitrate
fertilizer plant at Fier, a superphosphate plant at Lac, and a plant for the
manufacture of tractor spare parts at Tirana. A variety of smaller plants were
also built for the production of such items as caustic soda, sulfuric acid,
rubber products, electrical equipment and light bulbs, footwear, and vegetable
oils.

     Along with the construction of technologically up-to-date plants, others
were built with outdated technology through the lack of construction
experience or knowledge of more advanced methods. At the same time, obsolete
plants and workshops remained in use. In 1969 these technologically backward
plants produced less than half the total output but employed more than half
the industrial labor force.

     Available information on the structure of industry is ambiguous because
of uncertainties regarding the pricing methods underlying the relevant data.
According to the official figures for 1967 based on 1966 prices, the food
industry accounted for nearly one-third and light industry for almost
one-fourth of the total industrial output. The balance of 44 percent was
produced by some fourteen or more industry branches, the relative shares of
which ranged from 8.0 percent for metalworking and for timber and wood
processing to 0.3 percent for the bitumen industry. As a group, six industry
branches engaged in oil production and mining contributed about 15 percent of
the output. The building materials industry accounted for 5 percent and
electric power production, for not quite 4 percent.

     The relationship between the output of capital goods and that of consumer
goods is equally ambiguous. The share of capital goods in the output of 1968
was officially reported as 55.5 percent, as against 44.5 percent for consumer
goods. The apparent discrepancy between the reported shares in total output of
consumer goods as compared with the production of the light and food
industries may be explained, in part, by the fact that a portion of these
industries' output is usually included among capital goods as, for instance,
textiles used by the clothing industry and leather used by the shoe industry.

     Foreign observers have reported the country's industry to be poorly
balanced not only in a technical sense but also in terms of essential domestic
needs and the availability of foreign outlets for its products. The
metalworking industry, for example, which is limited to the production of
automotive and industrial spare parts, apart from a few types of simple
agricultural equipment and household utensils, cannot even ensure the
maintenance of the existing machinery inventory because it is able to supply
only about 60 to 70 percent of the country's needs. Industrial production is
substantially oriented toward capital goods and exports, whereas the
manufacture of products for domestic consumption continues to be severely
restricted.

     The leadership is aware of industry's structural shortcomings and is
intent on overcoming them through a program involving the reconstruction and
modernization of old plants and the concentration of small shops into larger,
more efficient specialized units. Progress in this direction, however, has
been hampered by inadequate investment resources and by a reluctance of
managers and workers to cooperate with this program. It has also been
handicapped by a lack of effective planning and by an inability to organize
comprehensive studies that would provide a basis for both overall and detailed
plans.

     Nevertheless, a few plants for the manufacture of machine spare parts and
of simple equipment were formed through the concentration of milling machines
previously installed in maintenance shops of various enterprises, and a step
toward the consolidation of small artisan shops was taken in May 1969 by
transforming artisans' cooperatives into state enterprises.

     Owing to the lack of prior industrial experience by both managers and
labor, industry also suffers from poor organization of production and of the
material supply, low labor productivity, and generally inferior quality of
product. Extensive discussion of these problems in the official press
indicates that government efforts toward reducing the magnitude of these
problems are slow in bearing fruit, despite programs for vocational training
and intensive campaigns of political indoctrination aimed at generating
productive enthusiasm and innovative initiative among workers and managers. A
major campaign is being waged to eradicate artisan traditions and to replace
them with industrial production line methods. The basic difficulty in
achieving greater efficiency lies in the continuing severe shortage of skilled
manpower and of personnel with adequate training in the economics and
mechanics of industrial production.

     Because of the underlying pricing methods, officially reported data on
total industrial production in value terms overstate the actual rate of growth
attained. Substantial industrial progress is, nevertheless, indicated by
physical production data for a number of commodities (see table 12). Since
production  had started from nothing or from very low levels in the early
post-World War II years, the rates of growth in output were substantially
higher during the 1950s than in the following decade.

     The highest rates of increase during the 1960s, ranging from five to
three times the initial volume, were achieved in the production of copper,
electric power, and cement. Increases of from 69 to 80 percent were attained
for coal, oil, and iron-nickel ore. Production of textiles and footwear grew
by more than h