It mainly relates to the significant growing number of Banka Popullore branches, which opened 15 new branches throughout the territory of Albania over 2005, and to several other banks within this group, which expanded with some new branches and agencies after a period of long inactivity. The number of employees grew considerably over 2005, by 24 per cent, from the growth of 26 per cent over 2004. This significant growth in the number of employees is mainly related to the expansion of the banking system network and to the extension of the banks’ activities, which requires a better division of work and a more complete organizational structure. By the end 2005, the Albanian banking system had 3,479 employees, from 2,816 over the previous year. Compared to the previous year, the number of employees per banking unit decreased over 2005. In 2005, banks had 13.9 employees per banking unit, compared to 15 over 2004. Such a decrease has been a consequence of the growing number of branches and agencies with higher rates than the growth of the number of employees. A considerable number of branches and agencies have been established in sparsely populated areas; as a consequence, the number of employees in these branches and agencies has been quite small. The number of loan officers has increased considerably, following the significant growth of lending over 2005 and in the upcoming period. A considerable number of banks have restructured their loan departments, aiming at a more distinct division of duties and responsibilities.
Although the decoupling of countries seems highly difficult in a global environment where all countries get increasingly interpenetrated via capital flows and financial integration, it is a fact that developing countries have ended up in a much better position in the recent global crisis in comparison to their economic performance in the past crises. It would not be wrong to assert that the main reasons underlying this transformation are the increased commercial, financial and economic relationships among developing countries, accompanied  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  by strong economic and institutional governance practices formulated in view of lessons learnt from past crises. The increase in the volume of trade among developing countries has reduced the adverse effects of the weak course of external demand from advanced economies. Therefore, production and employment levels in developing countries have assumed a more rapid pace of recovery. At this point, by using Turkey’s export data, I would like to exemplify the importance of diversification of export markets driven by improving relations with countries in the region. As it is known, the European Union countries have the largest share in Turkey’s exports. Nevertheless, the share of member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Turkey’s exports is rapidly growing. During the period between end-2000 and end2010, while the share of the European Union countries in total exports of Turkey declined from 56% to 46%, that of OIC member states rose from 13% to 29%.