interested foreign
observers, however, reported that the equipment acquired with the aid of
Communist China was better suited to the needs of the country and of
better quality than that supplied by the Soviet Union.

Among the major industrial projects completed or under construction in
1970 with the assistance of Communist Chinese technicians were: copper,
chromium, and iron-nickel mines; an oil refinery at Fier with an annual
capacity of 500,000 tons of crude oil, a 225,000-kilowatt hydroelectric
power station at Vau i Dejes on the Drin River; a 100,000-kilowatt
capacity of 500,000 tons of crude oil; a 225,000-kilowatt/thermal
power-plant at Fier; a copper-ore dressing installation and a
copper-wire drawing mill; a steel-rolling mill at Elbasan; cement mills
at Elbasan and Kruje; large textile combines at Tirana and Berat; and a
knit goods factory at Korce.

Of special benefit to agriculture was the construction of a nitrate
fertilizer plant at Fier, a superphosphate plant at Lac, and a plant for
the manufacture of tractor spare parts at Tirana. A variety of smaller
plants were also built for the production of such items as caustic soda,
sulfuric acid, rubber products, electrical equipment and light bulbs,
footwear, and vegetable oils.

Along with the construction of technologically up-to-date plants, others
were built with outdated technology through the lack of construction
experience or knowledge of more advanced methods. At the same time,
obsolete plants and workshops remained in use. In 1969 these
technologically backward plants produced less than half the total output
but employed more than half the industrial labor force.

Available information on the structure of industry is ambiguous because
of uncertainties regarding the pricing methods underlying the relevant
data. According to the official figures for 1967 based on 1966 prices,
the food industry accounted for nearly one-third and light industry for
almost one-fourth of the total industrial output. The balance of 44
percent was produced by some fourteen or more industry branches, the
relative shares of which ranged from 8.0 percent for metalworking and
for timber and wood processing to 0.3 percent for the bitumen industry.
As a group, six industry branches engaged in oil production and mining
contributed about 15 percent of the output. The building materials
industry accounted for 5 percent and electric power production, for not
quite 4 percent.

The