Economy
The city of Tirana is the economy heartland of Tirana County and the nation of Albania and is a major industrial centre. It has experienced rapid growth and established many new industries since the 1920s. The principal industries include agricultural products and machinery, textiles, pharmaceuticals, and metal products. It contains many of the important businesses and institutions including the Tirana Stock Exchange and the Tirana Bank, both of which have grown in productivity since 1996.
The TID tower at 85 meters is being constructed in the city. Tirana has several extensive shopping huge malls, such as City Park at 3 km² and the QTU Shopping Centre, located to the northwest of Tirana on the road to Durrës.
A partnership was instituted under USAID funding between the Tirana City and Catawba County of North Carolina (USA), which was extended in two phases between 2000–2004 and 2005–2007 for planning and implementing several management and development measures in Tirana, with expertise provided by the Catawba County. The improvements in the urban conglomerate covered wide disciplines of proper municipal budgeting and revenue generation, improvement of urban environment, particularly solid waste collection and management involving private sector participation for land fill operations of the Sharra landfill and improving infrastructure assets to match with growing urbanization of Tirana.
Read more about this topic: Tirana County
Famous quotes containing the word economy:
“The counting-room maxims liberally expounded are laws of the Universe. The merchant’s economy is a coarse symbol of the soul’s economy. It is, to spend for power, and not for pleasure.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them.... for really new ideas of any kind—no matter how ultimately profitable or otherwise successful some of them might prove to be—there is no leeway for such chancy trial, error and experimentation in the high-overhead economy of new construction. Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)
“War. Fighting. Men ... every man in the whole realm is in the army.... Every man in uniform ... An economy entirely geared to war ... but there is not much war ... hardly any fighting ... yet every man a soldier from birth till death ... Men ... all men for fighting ... but no war, no wars to fight ... what is it, what does it mean?””
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)