Towards the Importance for Sustainable Development: Case Study: Albania

AuthorKlodiana Gorica, Ermelinda Kordha Tolica, Kozeta Sevrani
Pages472-482
European Integration - Realities and Perspectives. Proceedings 2015
472
Towards the Importance for Sustainable Development: Case Study:
Albania
Klodiana Gorica1, Ermelinda Kordha Tolica2, Kozeta Sevrani3
Abstract: Information has become an important element without which society cannot achieve its objectives.
The term information society is increasingly used nowadays, because of the importance and necessity of
information in today's dynamic environment. Western countries are convinced that the information society
will result in economic and social benefits (Audenhove 2000). Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD), notes that information infrastructures are expected to stimulate economic growth,
increase productivity, create jobs, and improve on the quality of life (Gichoya 2005). It is for these reasons
that many stu dies state that the role of ICTs as enablers of sustainable development is growing. The overall
goal of this paper is to point out the importance of ICT market development for the sustainable development
of all the economy and the final development of Information society, especially in developing countries,
where Albania is the case study illustration. The first step of this research is to show the importance of
studying ICTs in the light of building an information society. In fact, the efforts of a country to build an
information society, in order to benefit in terms of sustainable development, are closely rel ated to the efforts
of building strong information infrastructures and a growing ICT sector. Many indicators related to
Information society measurement deal in fact with the infrastructures needed and the products and services of
ICT sector. But, failures to submit ICT in contexts which are contrary to techno-economic rationality are
reflected in many cases in developing countries. Thus, a defining characteristic of this research is to
understand the contexts that confront ICT and information systems development in developing countries in
terms of their conditions. In fact the development of ICT sector, depend not only on the political, economic
and social conditions of each country, but also on the phase of e-readiness of the society. Measuring the
readiness of this society to enter in the information and electronic age is very important, in the context of
sustainable development. The methodology of this research includes two steps: analyzing second ary data
about Information society and ICT market development in Albania, analyzing questionnaires directed to ICT
market firms about the most important factors that are affecting today the development of IC T sector. New
emerging technologies, such as broadband, wireless networks, cloud computing etc., are always changing the
environment of ICT sector and the infrastructures used. Financial forces and investments are playing an
important role when speaking about the research in this field. But the future challenge, especially for
developing countries will be the decision to better interaction between private operators and public policies,
inciting the ICT sector or the private investments oriented through more services and infrastructures for
developing successfully an information society.
Keywords: Sustainable development; e-Marketing; ICT market
1 Associate P rofessor, PhD, Marketing and Tourism Depart ment, Faculty of Economics, University of Tirana, Albania,
        Klodianagorica@feut.edu.al;
klodi_gorica@yahoo.com.
2 Associate Professor, PhD, Business Administration Department, Faculty of economics, University of Vlora, Albania,
Address: Rruga Kosova, Vlorë 9401, Albania, E-mail: Ermelinda.tolica@univlora.edu.al.
3 P rofessor, Ph D, Applied In formatics department, Faculty of Economics, University of Tirana, Albania, Address: Squ are
-mail: Kozeta.sevrani@unitir.edu.al.

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