siting the Balkan route and cocaine from South America destined
for Western Europe; limited opium production

Exports: $141 million (f.o.b., 1994 est.)
commodities: asphalt, metals and metallic ores, electricity, crude
oil, vegetables, fruits, tobacco
partners: Italy, US, Greece, The Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia

Imports: $601 million (f.o.b., 1993 est.)
commodities: machinery, consumer goods, grains
partners: Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, The Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia

External debt: $977 million (1994 est.)

Economic aid:
recipient: ODA, $NA

Currency: 1 lek (L) = 100 qintars

Exchange rates: leke (L) per US$1 - 95.65 (January 1996), 100.00
(January 1995), 99.00 (January 1994), 97.00 (January 1993), 50.00
(January 1992), 25.00 (September 1991)

Fiscal year: calendar year

Transportation
--------------

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

Highways:
total: 18,450 km
paved: 17,450 km
unpaved: 1,000 km (1991 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: Durres, Sarande, Shengjin, Vlore

Merchant marine:
total: 11 cargo ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 52,967 GRT/76,887
DWT (1995 est.)

Airports:
total: 11
with paved runways 2 438 to 3 047 m: 3
with paved runways 914 to 1 523 m: 2
with unpaved runways over 3 047 m: 2
with unpaved runways 2 438 to 3 047 m: 1
with unpaved runways 1 524 to 2 437 m: 1
with unpaved runways 914 to 1 523 m: 2 (1994 est.)

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 Tirane 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.)

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

Manpower availability:
males age 15-49: 723,231
males fit for military service: 588,3