Posta Shqiptare

Posta Shqiptare sh.a.

Type	Public limited company
Industry	Postal service
Founded	December 5, 1912
Headquarters	Tirana, Albania
Key people	Genc Ruli, Chairman Arqile Gorea, CEO
Owner(s)	Albanian Government
Website	postashqiptare.al postashqiptare.al/kreu.php

Posta Shqiptare is the national postal service of Albania. Posta Shqiptare sh.a. is a public limited company owned by the Albanian Government. Current chairman of Posta Shqiptare is Genc Ruli, the current Minister of Economy, Trade and Energetic Resources.

History

Beginnings in the Ottoman Empire

The needs to communicate in distance, which dictated the economic, cultural, social and spiritual development of the country, dictated even the development of the postal services. The postal services in Albania have started since the country was part of the Ottoman Empire. According to sources and history books it is thought that the first postal offices opened during the 1840s and 1850s. A more organized postal service started in 1878 where postal offices were opened in every city in Albania. in the end of the 19th century and in the beginnings of the 20th century, in Albania started working two naval companies which would also work as postal offices for deliveries abroad. Those were the Austrian LLoyd company and the Italian Puglia company and were settled in all coastal cities (Shkoder, Durres, Vlorë, Sarande, Shengjin).

After the Independence

It is only after Albania declared its independence that the Provisional Government of Ismail Qemali, appreciated the communications importance and just a week after the declaration of independence, on December 5, 1912, founded the first Albanian postal, telephonic and telegraphic service. He also founded the Ministry of Telegraphs and Communications whose first minister was Lef Nosi. The first Albanian post stamps were emitted on May 5, 1913. During this government were produced six different emissions of stamps. On July 7, 1913 the Albanian Provisional Government applied to become a member of the General Postal Union, a process which lasted for more than 8 years and ended successfully on March 1, 1922. During this time the total number of connected offices was 17 while the length of the connecting cables was 1400 km. The headquarters were in Tirana and consisted of a director, four telegraphists, a Prime telegraphist, two postal workers and a delivery worker. The international service was possible in Korce and Gjirokastër for all Greece mails, from Vlorë for all Italy mails and from Shkoder and Diber for all Yugoslavia mails. In 1938 there were 68 postal offices and agencies in all over Albania. As the Italian capital starts growing in the country, the needs to communicate with Italy became indispensable. For this reason the Albanian Government decided to install a radio-station with short-length waves which made possible the telephone and telegraph connection between Rome and Tirana.

During the Communist period (1946-1990)

During the war many networks and lines were damaged so after the country's liberation it was needed a hard work to repair the damaged lines and build new ones. In 1946 was built a new telephonic line between Tirana and Peshkopi which would also serve as a connector between Tirana, Belgrade and Skopje. There were also established connections throughout the country and by the 70s there were postal offices in every single city or villagge in Albania.

The 90s and present time

During the 1990s there were many positive developments. Many international companies started operating in Albania such as DHL, TNT, UPS and FedEx. For the first time, Posta Shqiptare started the financial services while during 1998–2001 thanks to the investments made, the infrastructure was improved. In September 1999, law nr. 8530 was approved from the Parliament. According to the law, the postal services can be offered from every postal company, respecting a reserved area of postal services which are covered from Posta Shqiptare. Since 2008, Posta Shqiptare has an infrastructure which consists of 15 postal affiliates, 19 branches and offers its service to 250 postal offices throughout Albania.

See also

• Postage stamps and postal history of Albania

External links

• Official website