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These are momentous days for Albania. Two separate events – Kosovo’s declaration of independence and the likelihood of receiving an invitation to join the Nato alliance – offer one of Europe’s poorest countries an unprecedented chance of improving its long-term prospects.
For ethnic Albanians, who live in five countries in the western Balkans as a result of arbitrary drawing of national boundaries before and after the first world war, Kosovo’s re-birth on February 17 as a European state was cause for jubilation.

“There’s a sense that a historical injustice has been put right,” says Remzi Lani, director of the Soros Institute in Tirana.

Yet the celebrations in Tirana included scarcely a mention of Greater Albania, the idea that all 6m Albanians in the region should live in one nation state, indicating how much politics in the western Balkans has changed in the past 10 years.

“The independence of Kosovo has put an end to this project. We have already separated myths from politics and we are certain that Kosovo and Albania are going to have very good neighbourly relations,” says Sali Berisha, the prime minister.

A €600m ($932m) project to upgrade the road from the port of Durres on the Adriatic to the border with Kosovo underscores the new relationship. Bechtel of the US and Turkey’s Enka group are building a 70km section of highway including a series of tunnels through the mountains, as well as widening the existing road...

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There is still one place in Europe that offers cultural treasures free from the tourist crowds. Hamish McRae enjoys an Albanian adventure
Albania has yet to catch the tourist bug; and there are many people who think it's for good reason. Tell people you are going to Tirana and they think you are doing something that is either dangerous or just plain crazy. Aren't you liable to be robbed? How do you get there? And what on Earth can you do there when you arrive?

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Clear seas, rooms with views, even a lost city to explore. How long till the hordes reach Albania, asks Marcus Tanner
I never meant to go to Albania. Who would after reading Paul Theroux's apocalyptic account of a trip to Vlore in The Pillars of Hercules? The idea was a sunny week in Corfu. But Corfu and I didn't connect, so after two days I checked out of my hotel and wheeled my suitcase to the port.
The first office I reached had the sign "Tickets to Albania" in the window, and as the man inside at his desk looked amiable, curiosity drew me in. When was the next boat? "In a few minutes at nine o'clock." "Umm, can I get back?" "There are three boats a day!" How long was the ride? "Twenty-five minutes." That more or less sorted it; the fact that my return ticket cost only €25 clinched it.

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The state of the road heading in is the main reason the Albanian Riviera has escaped large-scale tourist development. That and land ownership. The road's upgrade, with help from the World Bank, is the first major overhaul since the Italian Army built it in the 1940s. It is seen as a local vote winner for a population that is close enough to Corfu to know what tourism can bring.

The cliché that this 130km stretch of coastline is one of the last untarnished parts of the Mediterranean with deserted beaches is not lost on the deputy mayor of the sleepy seaside town of Himara. "Nature is the most important thing here, as well as the connection between the mountains and the sea," Stefo Mato says, referring to the high karst mountains that kick their feet in the sandy shoreline. "But service for tourists needs to get better. There must be more things to do here."

Then again, this is precisely why Albania's Ionian coast is worth visiting now, before the parasols arrive and the jet skis drown out the cricket song. Any intrepid traveller to the region should head straight to the top of the Llogora Pass with views of the Cika mountains plunging 910 metres into the sea. The spectacle encapsulates the real "Mediterranean as it once was". Pine trees interspersed with old stone farmhouses and citrus trees are all that interrupt the view.

In this coastal region inward investment, especially from overseas, is only beginning to trickle in. Land rights still remain an issue especially where the best beaches are located. And the Albanian authorities are still in the process of handing back property to owners from the pre-Communist era. Bogus title deeds and disputes over ownership have also stymied growth.

Albania -- which only ten years ago was involved in major political and social turmoil -- has seen an overall increase in Foreign Direct Investments (FDI). Many large companies have already expressed an interest in or begun implementation of projects, primarily dealing with the energy sector and transmission grids.

ASG Power, a Swiss-US multi-national company, has been given approval to begin construction of a power plant and regasification terminal in the area of Seman, 100km from Tirana. The project will receive an investment of almost 2.5 billion euros and will include a transmission line connecting Albania with Italy through the Adriatic Sea.

Simultaneously, another large US company launched a study of major oil and gas reserves in the country in mid-January. Albania has considerable oil and gas reserves, which may reach 3 billion barrels of oil and 3 billion cubic metres of natural gas, according to the study carried out by international consultant Gustavson, which was hired by Manas Petroleum.

If the study is accurate, then Albania will have opportunities for its economic strategy in 2008 and, in the future, may become an oil and gas exporter. Albania's FDI for 2007 was more than 400m euros and is expected to be much higher this year based on interest expressed by foreign businesses in industries such as the energy sector and construction materials.

Berisha declared to the Strategies Planning Commission on January 19th that "2008 is the year when the fiscal package will be entirely installed, which will bring about the deepest fiscal revolution in the history of this country." The new fiscal package includes a 10% flat tax and the 1 euro initiative, which allows foreign companies to pay 1 euro for public rents and licenses. Both are designed to attract businesses to Albania, as well as to stimulate domestic companies to increase production and employment.