Imports:
total value: $879 million (f.o.b., 1996 est.)
commodities: machinery, consumer goods, grains
partners: Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, The Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia

Debt-external: $645 million (1996)

Economic aid:
recipient: $630 million pledged 1997

Currency: 1 lek (L) = 100 qintars

Exchange rates: leke (L) per US$1-152.28 (January 1998), 148.93
(1997), 104.50 (1996), 92.70 (1995), 94.62 (1994), 102.06 (1993)

Fiscal year: calendar year

Communications

Telephones: 55,000

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 17, FM 1, shortwave 0

Radios: 577,000 (1991 est.)

Television broadcast stations: 9

Televisions: 300,000 (1993 est.)

@Albania:Transportation

Railways:
total: 670 km
standard gauge: 670 km 1.435-m gauge (1995)

Highways:
total: 18,000 km
paved: 5,400 km
unpaved: 12,600 km (1996 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: 8 cargo ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 36,582 GRT/54,832
DWT (1997 est.)

Airports: 9 (1997 est.)

Airports-with paved runways:
total: 5
2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
914 to 1,523 m: 2 (1997 est.)

Airports-with unpaved runways:
total: 4
over 3,047 m: 1
1,524 to 2,437 m: 1
914 to 1,523 m: 2 (1997 est.)

Heliports: 1 (1997 est.)

@Albania: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: 749,633 (1998 est.)

Military manpower-fit for military service:
males: 609,986 (1998 est.)

Military manpower-reaching military age annually:
males: 32,367 (1998 est.)

Military expenditures-dollar figure: $42 million (1996)

Military expenditures-percent of GDP: 1.5% to 2.0% (1996)

@Albania:Transnational Issues

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