Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Peshevski, who attends the China - Central and Eastern Europe summit in Riga, said that for Macedonia, Chinese investments in infrastructure development are becoming increasingly important as Macedonia works to bring its infrastructure in line with European standards. Macedonian officials attend the regular summit between China and 16 Central and Eastern European countries, which is a top venue for infrastructure investment deals and trade cooperation.

"Looking at our transportation needs, and the standards that each European Union candidate country needs to meet, there are truly significant investments that need to be made. We need approximately two billion EUR in road and railroad infrastructure investments, to bring them up to European standards by 2030. These are significant expenses, and some of them are being provided by the European Union, but we need to find additional sources of investment. And so, currently, under the 16+1 program initiated by the Chinese Prime Minister Li, we are building the Miladinovci - Stip and Kicevo - Ohrid highways", said Peshevski, who spoke at a panel on transportation and logistics at the business forum organized with the Riga Summit.

According to him, the level of Chinese infrastructure investment support in these two projects is similar to the one Macedonia has received from the European Union for the Demir Kapija - Smokvica highway and the railway link with Bulgaria that is supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

"In transportation and logistics investments, Macedonia has relied much more heavily on the Western countries than on China. But, when there is an opportunity to use other alternatives, in the interest of the state, then we need to do so because it is our citizens who will benefit in the end. I expect to see the whole eastern region of Macedonia rejuvenated once the two corridors are completed, and we can see great increase in industrial investment, agriculture and tourism. Similar effects can also be expected in the west too", said Peshevski, adding that it is possible to achieve additional flexibility in the cooperation with China, which sometimes is not the case with Western institutions.