TIRANA, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Albania's trade register administered by the National Business Center (QKB) joined the Business and Financial Data Exchange (BIFIDEX), a regional business registration portal in the Western Balkans, QKB said in a press release on Thursday.
According to the press release, the agreement enabling the participation of Albania's trade register in the BIFIDEX was signed on Thursday during the regional board meeting held in the capital Tirana.
Speaking to participants at the meeting, Pranvera Behushi, head of the QKB, said the project enables real-time communication of reliable, up-to-date information to all trade subjects in the trade registers of participating countries.
"The online portal will interconnect Albanian businesses with those in the region, enabling the growth of economic and trade cooperation between the countries in the region," Behushi said.
Minister of State for the Protection of Entrepreneurship, Eduard Shalsi, said the "Albanian government is undertaking a number of reforms to improve the business climate, as well as to promote regional cooperation in different areas of the economy."
Matteo Colangeli, head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to Albania, said he was happy Albania joined this online register, an initiative supported by the EBRD since 2015.
"We are willing to cooperate with the QKB in order to increase the quality and access to business data in Albania, which is very important for attracting investments and policy-making in the economic field," Colangeli said.
BIFIDEX is an online portal which serves as a one-stop information point for businesses and investors, providing up-to-date information from national business registry agencies.
The database currently provides support to more than 700,000 businesses and entities and more than 2 million company representatives and owners. Enditem
