Today, 21 October, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Zoran Stavreski, took part in President’s Conference “Facing Tomorrow”, held from 20 to 22 October in Jerusalem, Israel, hosted by the Israeli President, Shimon Peres.
 
Vice Prime Minister Stavreski participated in the panel “How Much Capital is Left in Capitalism”, together with renowned persons from eminent universities in the world, businessmen and policy creators. He spoke of challenges and consequences from the global economic crisis that SEE countries faced, taking up to the models to exit the crisis.
 
The panel concluded that transition countries opening to capitalism, deficit of which is mainly financed from foreign direct investments, should seek the model of sustainable growth in future in improving business climate, increasing competitiveness, investments in education and technology.
 
In this respect, Republic of Macedonia implemented most of the reforms aimed at improving the conditions for doing business, increased investments in education and infrastructure and also undertook other measures to alleviate crisis consequences. It was pointed out that Republic of Macedonia was one of the countries in SEE that managed the crisis well. Crisis is a result of certain weaknesses of the capitalism as a system, however, there is no serious political alternative for it at the moment. Solutions to overcome the crisis should be sought therein.
 
Participation of Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Finance as panelist at this prestigious conference has contributed to affirmation of the Republic of Macedonia internationally. This is second President’s Conference held in Israel. Participants at the Conference included Macedonian President Gorge Ivanov, President of Croatia Stipe Mesik, President of the Czech Republic Václav Klaus, former Spanish and British Prime Ministers, Jose Maria Aznar and Tony Blair, as well as the High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana. Over 3,000 participants, among which eminent businessmen and innovators, attended the Conference.
