The BRESTAT project will officially begin with a two-day Kick-Off Meeting on 16th and 17th December in Tirana, gathering partners from Albania, Italy and Montenegro. The meeting marks the start of this 30-month EU-funded initiative, funded for €1.07 million with the aim to improve the quality of business information and strengthen economic cooperation across the South Adriatic region.

Public institutions and economic actors in Albania and Montenegro continue to face challenges in collecting, organizing and using business data according to European standards. These gaps affect market analysis, limit support for SMEs, and make cross-border cooperation more difficult.

BRESTAT responds to these challenges with a unified and collaborative approach. Unioncamere, ARTI, INSTAT and MONSTAT will work together to harmonise statistical methods and develop a shared research model. Unioncamere, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Tirana (CCIT) and the Chamber of Economy of Montenegro (CEM) will carry out joint analyses and feasibility surveys, while CCIT will lead the development of the digital platform and the project’s business database.

A key output will be a new Database of Italian entrepreneurs operating in Albania and Montenegro, enriched by the first cross-border analysis of results. Building on this foundation, partners will develop a joint strategy that will serve as a methodological compass for future cooperation. All project partners will train interviewers, conduct field surveys, analyse results together, and jointly adopt the shared strategy and Memorandum of Understanding that will formalise long-term collaboration.

By harmonising business statistics across the three countries and aligning them with EU standards, BRESTAT will help improve data quality and accessibility, strengthen public policy, support SMEs, and foster more informed decision-making. This unified approach will boost regional competitiveness and contribute to a more integrated and resilient South Adriatic economy.

The BRESTAT project is led by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Tirana, in partnership with Unioncamere Puglia, Chamber of Economy of Montenegro, Regional Agency for Technology, Technology transfer and Innovation (ARTI ) Puglia, Institute of Statistics (INSTAT) Albania, Statistical Office of Montenegro (MONSTAT).

Download the Agenda HERE.