ABSTRACT
Albania is a small country with a population estimated at 3.2 million in 2004 and a land area of 28,748 square kilometres (12 per cent of the size of the UK, 5 per cent of the size of France). The mainly rugged and inhospitable terrain has been aptly described as the rock garden of South-eastern Europe. About 70 per cent of its land area consists of hills and mountains, which support sheep, goats, forest and scrub. Trees cover nearly half of Albania’s territory. Its coastal plains and river basins, which are mainly located in the south and west, are warm and potentially fertile. About 57 per cent of Albania’s workforce was engaged in agriculture in 2004, but arable land made up only 21 per cent of its territory, and Albania has had to import most of its food requirements in recent years. The country is relatively well endowed with minerals and energy resources, especially chrome (of which it had the world’s thirdlargest output in 1985), nickel, copper, iron ore, manganese, oil, gas and coal. It also has considerable hydroelectric power potential, which now accounts for over 90 per cent of the country’s electricity generation and permits some electricity to be exported, and a lot of untapped tourism potential.
