Albania

28 abril 2023 — G/TFA/N/ALB/3  

As part of the World Bank Group's engagement with the Government of Albania, the Western Balkans Trade and Transport Facilitation Project provides support for Albania with the development of such an NSW and transition to a NSW environment. This Loan Agreement with the WB is approved in June 2019 by the Albanian Government and ratified by the Albanian Parliament in September 2019. In February 2020, a Unit (PIU) within the Ministry of Finance and Economy is set up to follow the implementation of this Project.

The Government of Albania (GoA) is interested in the development of a National Single Window (NSW) for the automated processing of import, export, and transit transactions in trade. Implementation of the SW is one of the priorities of the Albanian Customs, considering it very important for trade facilitation and minimizing corruption.
Albania has almost a complete comprehensive technical and political attitude to support the application of a SW concept, but the steps to be taken in order to have a significant contribution in this direction are still underway.

The following steps activities are developed up to now:
• Prime Minister's Order No. 131 of 27.03.2014 "On setting up the Inter Institutional Group to implement the "Single Window" is issued. This group is composed by relevant institutions involved;
• A working group was set up composed of: the Director of Procedures, the Director of Tariffs and Origins, the Director of Legislation, the Director of IT, the Director of Risk Analysis and the Director of Anti traffic;
• Several trainings have taken place in the frame of UNECE with the focus on national interconnectivity of SW. Also, a Feasibility Study on the environment of the SW in Albania is prepared by local experts with the support of UNECE;
• In the frame of the Twinning Project (an EU-IPA 2013 funded Project) for the Integrated Tariff Management System (ITMS) some activities were dedicated to the national interconnectivity – single window. For what concerns the national domain, the interconnectivity with other government administrations and the system to system interoperability are important for the full ITMS efficient implementation because the validity of tariff measures (licenses, quotas, etc.) requires administrative and technical cooperation with other governmental bodies (i.e. Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, etc.);
• Furthermore, a review of the legal basis for the Albanian Single Window was conducted according to "Digital Administration Agenda of Albania 2015 – 2020";
• An analysis of the government portal e-albania.al was done on its functionalities and IT services. E albania.al portal is administered and developed by the National Agency of Information Society (NAIS) and serves as a gateway through which any interested person can access via electronic means the electronic services provided by public institutions. The e-Albania governmental portal is linked to the Governmental Interoperability Platform, which is the basic architecture that enables interaction with electronic systems of public institutions. Currently e-Albania offers some customs services that collect only data and then this data is transmitted by email to the Albanian Customs Administration (ACA). These services don't use the Interoperability Platform defined and managed by NAIS.

A recent reform of the Government Sector foresees that each public institution has to refer to NAIS for IT projects. Under these circumstances the IT specialists that follow Customs Projects are under the structure of NAIS and located within the General Directorate of Customs premises, having an impact on the current IT customs projects.
As part of the World Bank Group's engagement with the Government of Albania, the Western Balkans Trade and Transport Facilitation Project provides support for Albania with the development of such an NSW and transition to a NSW environment. This Loan Agreement with the WB is approved in June 2019 by the Albanian Government and ratified by the Albanian Parliament in September 2019. In February 2020, a Unit (PIU) within the Ministry of Finance and Economy is set up to follow the implementation of this Project and Customs is represented with one expert therein.

The Albanian Customs Administration benefits an amount of USD 12 million for the development and implementation of:
• The Customs Single Widow project;
• The Development of NCTS platform;
• The Construction of the Joint Border Crossing Point (with North Macedonia) in Qafe Thane.

Related to National Single Window System where Customs is a lead Government Agency, the progress until now is:

It has been created under the Order of Prime Minister for Steering Committee "Nr 104, date 07/08/2020 'For the Establishment Of The Inter-Institutional Group of Trade Policy Coordination And Trade Facilitation":
1. Order of the Minister of Finance and Economy No. 16349/1 dated 21.09.2022 "ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INTERSECTORAL WORKING GROUP FOR THE CREATION OF THE NATIONAL SINGLE WINDOW FOR CUSTOMS, WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE PROJECT "FACILITATION OF TRADE AND TRANSPORT IN THE WESTERN BALKANS WITH A MULTI-PHASE PROGRAMMING APPROACH "
2. Draft law on proposals for changes to the Customs Code (for some changes in Law No. 104, dated 31.7.2014 "CUSTOMS CODE OF THE REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA" AMENDED BY LAW NO. 32, dated 02.04.2015)
3. Draft VKM (Project-decision on the creation and operation of the National Single Window for Customs)
4. Report on the Legal Package.

A dedicated legal Expert has been hired to support the PIU for identifying and supporting the project in resolving legal issues. Analysis of the existing general legislation identified that the current legal framework has been constantly improved, approximated, and modernized in line with the EU acquis and is well placed to contribute to the legal basis for the establishment of an NSW. In particular, the Customs legislation, the Law on Services, the Law on Electronic Commerce, the Law on the Electronic Document, the Law on State Databases, the Law on the Organization and Functioning of State Administration, the Law on Electronic Identification and Trusted Services provide a solid basis to build the National Single Window.

In February, the first meeting of the public consultation process with Interest Groups represented by business associations operating in our country was held. In this meeting, with all government agency and business too, the focus was to introduce the NSW technical System (a model of the functional structure) and the draft-Legal changes (preliminary legal proposals) that are prepared and proposed from PIU to Albanian Customs and all other Institutions that are part/beneficiary of the new system NSW. Those draft-legal proposal will pass through the filter of each institution and in consultation with the business also. Specifically, these proposals were received from a European Parliament/Council for the foundation of NSW, for Customs. This suggestion is addressed to all Member States on how to adopt this Technical Proposal including the internal legislation for the implementation of this component. So, these legal improvements come because of a new legal directive from the EU.

The procurement procedure is in the finalization of the selection of the Company that will start the activity WBTTF-ALB-111AB-112AB - System Design, Technical Specifications, Supervision has begun. and National Single Window (NSW) Quality Assurance". This activity is a good start of the process that this System has to be implemented.