The tourist Albania of recent years has been a surprise for foreigners discovering a destination with many natural beauties, but also having a taste of the development of road infrastructure.

Starting from 2025, it will be easier for those who choose to visit our country, because now data on intercity public transport has been integrated into Google Maps, making orientation easier.

This means that to go from one city to another, you just need to search in Google Maps and the itinerary is automatically generated, in some cases with more than one option, depending on the destination you want to go to and the route you want to choose.

“The data that is currently on the Google Maps has as its source several operators, from e-Transport, which is the official website of intercity public transport in the country, the Municipality of Tirana regarding public transport in the capital, as well as private entities that have data platforms on transport,” wrote the “Monitor” magazine.

For example, if you want to go from Tirana to Korça, the map specifies the nearest urban bus to reach the center of the capital from where you then take the urban bus that leads you to the “Southeastern Terminal”. There you take the bus that takes you to Korça, which departs every 60 minutes, in this case.

Albania, with its growing interest as a tourist destination, has had to coordinate public transport on Google Maps, given that the options it offers are limited, focusing only at buses since functional railway lines are missing. /r.e//a.f/p.s./

The exhibition is divided into several sections. The first section is devoted to the history of Venice, as one of the most important centers of the European Renaissance, which in the period between the 1400s and the end of the 1700s, was the center of printing in Europe.

The second section is dedicated to Albania and Greece, places where Venice had a great influence for several centuries. This section presents some of the first testimonies of written Albanian, such as those of Buzuku and Bogdani. Venice was also the place where a large number of works dedicated to Skanderbeg or the history of Albania were published, starting with those of Barleti, Marin Beçikemi, Dhimitër Frangu, etc. The section also contains a number of original maps of Albania and Albanian cities.

A special section is devoted to books dealing with Venice’s relations with the Orient, where the wars against the Ottoman Empire occupy a prominent place, works which can serve as an extraordinary source of information about the history of Albanians.

The Venetians are primarily known as travelers and geographers, so a special section is dedicated to this topic. The last two sections are devoted to publications related to science, literature and religion. – The exhibition closes with a space dedicated to the newest publications dedicated to the historical relations of Albanians with Venice.

The exhibition comes under the care of scientific curator Elisabetta Sciarra, director of the National Central Library of Florence, one of the most prestigious and oldest libraries in Europe. /j.p/p.s./

The 1: 2000 scale topographic maps covering 300 km2 were created by a successful cooperation between the State Geospatial Information Authority (ASIG) and the JICA Project Team involving local companies. The maps are in accordance with the EU INSPIRE directive and have high resolution and accuracy.

The Closing Conference of the Project as well as the Balkan Regional Conference were held on November 4 and 5, to share the results achieved with stakeholders, government agencies, municipalities, embassies of Japan in the Balkan region, local companies, etc. who are potential users of the created digital topographic maps.

The ceremony took place at the ASIG headquarters in Tirana. Attending the event was Ambassador of Japan to Albania Takada Mitsuyuki, the Chief Representative of the Balkan Office of JICA Takeichi Jiro, the General Director of ASIG Lorenc Çala and other interested actors.

On his part, Director Çala said that, “About 80% of the decision-making of Central and Local Government directly affects the territory and the existence of digital topographic maps already helps tremendously in the planning, development and monitoring activities of many institutions in Albania” ./ a.a /p.s./

The market for the collection and cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs) in Albania has grown significantly. At the end of 2020, this market is estimated at $ 50 million compared to $ 30 million in 2014.

More than 95% of the total plants collected have been exported. Meanwhile, 3/4 of the sage imported from the USA originated from Albania.

Albania is part of the group of 25 leading exporters of MAPs in the world. MAPs exports reach almost 20% of Albania’s total agricultural exports.

The most important export products are sage, oregano, thyme, lavender. There has been a small upward trend in essential oil exports, as well as an increase in processing capacity in the country.

Rich biodiversity in Albania represents an important potential for the development of the MAPs sector. More than 400 species have been identified as MAPs of the Albanian flora, of which more than 200 species are collected and traded. //a.i/