AlbaniA

AlbaniaCommunications

AlbaniaTransportations

AlbaniaMilitary

AlbaniaTransnationalIssues

Communications

Telephones - main lines in use: 42,000 (1995)

Telephones - mobile cellular: 3,100 (1999)

Telephone system:

domestic: obsolete wire system; no longer provides a telephone for every village; in 1992, following the fall of the communist

government, peasants cut the wire to about 1,000 villages and used it to build fences

international: inadequate; international traffic carried by microwave radio relay from the Tirana exchange to Italy and Greece

Radio broadcast stations: AM 16, FM 3, shortwave 2 (1999)

Radios: 810,000 (1997)

Television broadcast stations: 13 (1999)

Televisions: 405,000 (1997)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 2 (1999)

Transportation

Railways:

total: 670 km

standard gauge: 670 km 1.435-m gauge (1996)

Highways:

total: 18,000 km

paved: 5,400 km

unpaved: 12,600 km (1998 est.)

Waterways: 43 km plus Albanian sections of Lake Scutari, Lake Ohrid, and Lake Prespa (1990)

Pipelines: crude oil 145 km; petroleum products 55 km; natural gas 64 km (1991)

Ports and harbors: Durres, Sarande, Shengjin, Vlore

Merchant marine:

total: 6 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 10,907 GRT/16,101 DWT

ships by type: cargo 6 (1999 est.)

Airports: 10 (1999 est.)

Airports - with paved runways:

total: 3

2,438 to 3,047 m: 3 (1999 est.)

Airports - with unpaved runways:

total: 7

over 3,047 m: 1

1,524 to 2,437 m: 1

914 to 1,523 m: 2

under 914 m: 3 (1999 est.)

Heliports: 1 (1999 est.)

Military

Military branches: Army, Navy, Air and Air Defense Forces, Interior Ministry Troops, Border Guards

Military manpower - military age: 19 years of age

Military manpower - availability:

males age 15-49: 856,820 (2000 est.)

Military manpower - fit for military service:

males age 15-49: 701,194 (2000 est.)

Military manpower - reaching military age annually:

males: 35,508 (2000 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure: $42 million (FY99)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 1.5% (FY99)

Transnational Issues

Disputes - international: the Albanian Government supports protection of the rights of ethnic Albanians outside of its borders but

has downplayed them to further its primary foreign policy goal of regional cooperation; Albanian majority in Kosovo seeks

independence from Serbian Republic; Albanians in The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia claim discrimination in education,

access to public-sector jobs, and representation in government

Illicit drugs: increasingly active transshipment point for Southwest Asian opiates, hashish, and cannabis transiting the Balkan route

and - to a far lesser extent - cocaine from South America destined for Western Europe; limited opium and cannabis production;

ethnic Albanian narcotrafficking organizations active and rapidly expanding in Europe