Road Investment and Regional Development Some Evidencies from Albania

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of current regional development and the forecast of the economic impact of transport (roads). Investment in Infrastructure (especially Roads) has for sure a very positive impact on regional development. The most common classification economic indicator of a country is Gross National Product per Capita. In fact income is an important criterion with the respect of the regional development. Investment in transport lead to general changes, which should be easily determine as direct and indirect benefit like reducing travel time, operating cost, increasing transport safety, but the contribution to regional development as a whole is subject of certain debates. There are some basically opinions about relation which exist between transport infrastructure and regional development. The first one states that infrastructure hardly influence the regional economic development. The second opinion is maybe the most acceptable one, that interaction between infrastructure and economic development is not a “linear” relationship. The third one is that regional development could be influenced easily by infrastructure investment. When analyzing recent development strategies, it can be accepted that the Republic of Albania is supporting the thesis that building infrastructure network is a prerequisite of regional development. In that context, Government investments in the regional and rural program are elaborated with expected positive effects on reduction of poverty and regional development. In this paper the case study of the “ Kukes- Morine ” road that will improve transport connections is selected in order to determine whether or not there is a justification for such belief.