19th November 2020, Skopje -Increasing the growth by twice, from the average 2%-2.5% rate in the past 10 years to the average 4%-5% in the period to come, may be achieved by implementing the four policy pillars – recovery from COVID-19 crisis, policies aimed at growth intensification, policies aimed at boosting the competitiveness of the economy and policies focused on making investments in the human capital. This was underlined by Minister of Finance Farmir Besimi in his interview on “Economic Magazine” TV program on Alsat-m.
– We insisted for this Budget to be forecasted within a 5-year period for the first time, since when we talk about policies, structural changes, and when having discussion about what is being crucial for raising the living standard of citizens, a forecast of several years is undoubtedly necessary therefor. The front pages of the 2021 Budget cover the priorities, also including a 5-year framework therein. These are: fiscal consolidation for a 5-year period, followed by a strategy aimed at economic recovery and intensification of the economic growth, as well as public investment projections for 2021-2025 period. All these should create the story, as well as the arguments and the trajectory of how the economic growth acceleration is to be achieved, given that in the last 10 years the average annual growth accounted for 2.5%, the goal is to reach 4%-5% average growth in the upcoming period – Besimi said.
The policies, which will contribute to this achievement may be categorized in four pillars, Minister of Finance said.
– The first one is managing the COVID-19 effect: the health aspect, saving the economy and keeping the jobs. The second pillar is intensifying the economic growth, pertaining to all investments in the field of: infrastructure, digitalization, tackling the informal economy and all other aspects included therein. The third category is boosting the competitiveness of the economy. This mean all policies aimed at supporting investments, various innovations, boosted competitiveness and export-orientation of companies, as well as increasing the investments, conquering new markets and bringing new technologies. The fourth pillar rests on making investments in the human capital, meaning high-quality education, which will be in line with the demand on the market, as well as sustainable health system – Besimi said.
