The building permit process is among Albania’s most inefficient and reform-resistant administrative procedures. The National Planning Register Component of the Millennium Challenge Corporation Albania Threshold Program II will streamline the building planning process and reduce opportunities for corruption in the permitting process. It will support the creation of a register, a web-based repository, for planning and building regulations and guidelines. The Register will make available to the public the criteria for territory and land use development and ensure transparency and access for individuals and businesses interested in developing properties.

The program’s National Planning Register Component works to achieve the following results:

Building permit information and applications accessible electronically. The program will design, develop, test and deploy in a central territorial planning agency and five pilot municipalities (including Tirana) a web-based register that will include: an information portal containing rules relating to territorial planning and construction permitting procedures for all municipalities; and a permit tracking and inspection module that enables applicants to track building permit applications on line.
Public aware of and monitoring the Registry. An educational campaign to inform the public on the capabilities of the National Planning Registry will go hand-in-hand with an effort to engage all beneficiaries in discussions to advance the reforms in territory planning and building permits’ procedures, and support civil society monitoring.

The outcomes of the project's engagement in territory planning include:

• Improvement of the efficiency and transparency of construction permit procedures;
• Drafting of secondary legislation and discussing it with stakeholders;
• Designing, testing and deploying the Registry in the National Territory Planning Agency, as well as in five pilot municipalities, including Tirana;
• Making the public information portal accessible online;
• Putting in place a system for data interconnectivity with all relevant actors;
• Training of 400 planning professionals and business people to use the system;
• Implementing a public outreach campaign. 

NATIONAL PLANNING REGISTER: GOALS AND TARGETS   Simplify the building planning process and reduce number of approval procedures from 24 to 4   Reduce average time for construction permit approval to 30 days -------------------------------------------------------------------------  NATIONAL PLANNING REGISTER: PLANNED ACTIVITIES IN YEAR 1   Assist in enactment of Territorial Planning Law   Establish electronic National Planning Registry which includes building criteria and tracking module for permits, and pilot in 5 municipalities   Publicize new services and train planning professionals