11th June 2018, Skopje – Activities are being undertaken related to reforms aimed at business climate improvement and gradual fiscal consolidation, Minister of Finance Dragan Tevdovski said at the conference at the occasion of commencing the preparation of the 2019-2021 Economic Reform Programme. Conference was attended by EU Ambassador to Macedonia Samuel Žbogar and all institutions involved in the preparation of the reform document submitted to the EU.
Tevdovski announced reforms aimed at precise determination of the competences of the inspectorates, to the end of greater predictability of the business environment and better business climate. He also pointed out that, by the end of this year, a new Law on Budgets will be adopted, envisaging medium-term budgeting and introduction of a Fiscal Council.
As Minister of Finance underlined, activities are being undertaken aimed at gradual fiscal consolidation through measures on both the revenue and the expenditure side. Tevdovski announced that the measures to be undertaken will be focused on better targeting of social benefits and subsidies, as well as that the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and the Ministry of Agriculture are already preparing programmes with the World Bank and the European Commission to that end.
During the conference, Tevdovski also mentioned the previous Economic Reform Programme, pointing out that Macedonia had the best performance as regards the reforms undertaken in the previous year compared to all other EU candidate countries.
– There is for the first time a clear and credible Public Financial Management Reform Programme prepared together with the EU. It includes an Action Plan for improving all important element of the public financial management system in the next three years. Tranparency has been significantly increased. Today, citizens have insight into how the public funds are spent. Citizens’ Budgets are published, as well as series of reports on budget execution, which were not previously available to the public. Public contracts of the institutions are also publicly available, and according to the new law, all submittedtenders will also be available – Tevdovski said.
EU Ambassador Samuel Žbogar also stressed that Macedonia experienced best performance in implementing the reforms last year compared to all other EU candidate countries, also improving its results compared to the previous years.
– Evident progress in public financial management was also achieved. Country started implementing the adopted reform programme, and the fiscal transparency has also been drastically improved. National Bank is continuously implementing stable monetary policy, maintaining the Denar exchange rate stability, as well as the price stability. Government limited the adoption of laws by applying summary procedure. In addition, now all ministers are obliged to publish the laws on the Single National Electronic Registry of Regulations for public consultation, the adoption of the Education Strategy comprises steps aimed at improving the qualifications of teachers – Žbogar said.
Economic Reform Programme is comprehensive document for economic governance, which the EU candidate countries are obliged to submit to the European Commission, every year. 2019-2021 Economic Reform Programme should be submitted to the European Commission by 31st January 2019.
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