London, 25th February 2014 (MIA) – Macroeconomic and political stability are the key factors for foreign investors in the Republic of Macedonia,Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Zoran Stavreski said at the conference on investments in the region, being held in London and organized by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Stavreski, as MIA reported, pointed out to the continuous activities providing for security and predictability for the investors in Macedonia.
– What is most important for investors is the political stability of the country. Macedonia has been EU candidate country since 2005. In this light, there is an issue that is neither part of the Copenhagen criteria nor part of the economic criteria, that being the name row with our neighbor Greece. However, this does not prevent us from harmonizing the legislation with both the EU Acquis and the standards of the EU Member States, which provides security and predictability for investors, Stavreski underlined.
He referred to the significance of the macroeconomic stability, which Macedonia maintained, while achieving growth even in the crisis period in Europe and worldwide. – In 2013, GDP grew by 3.3%, similarly to 2010 and 2011. All these years, when we witnessed negative growth in Europe, Macedonia recorded 3% growth, which is quite solid. There was negative growth only in 2009 and 2012, being much better compared to the developments in Europe, Deputy Prime Minister Stavreski said.
He estimated that the strong growth of 5%-6% realized before the crisis in 2007 and 2008 led to a good start, thus enabling the achievement of the goals determined by the Government.
– We are probably the only Government together with the Government of Merkel in Europe, which as of 2006, remained in power, which enabled us to have sufficient period for implementing reforms, coping with the crisis-related challenges, as well as for increasing the competitiveness in the country, which I believe is very important, Stavreski stressed.
According to him, sustainable public finance is one of the crucial components for macroeconomic stability.
– Government debt amounts to 34%, the fourth lowest in Europe, which is, in general, a result of the readiness before the crisis and the early repayment of a portion of the debt. This is also a result of our conservative policy regarding the loans from the World Bank and EBRD, providing us with support for the required infrastructure projects, as well as for the business environment, however we are always cautious about the debt sustainability, Stavreski said.
Advantages the zones offer were presented by the Director of TIDZ Viktor Mizo, pointing out that the two zones in Skopje are ranked among the 50 best ones.
This is very significant, since our zones are similar to those in Asia, with the one difference that only production is allowed in our case since we adhere to the EU rules, Mizo said. Following the conference in London, at which, yesterday, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and the counterparts from the region had their address, the Government economic team went to Germany, where the country’s investment benefits will be presented before the business community in Dusseldorf.
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