The business climate in Macedonia is dramatically improved both for domestic and foreign investors, assesses Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski in the interview with Voice of America (VOA) in the Macedonian Language Programme.

Discussing the reasons why one should invest in Macedonia, PM Gruevski listed the excellent business climate, sound macroeconomic policy, low costs for doing business and opportunities through the Macedonian market and having access to markets in the entire Europe and other continents.

“There are many reasons and I will mention few. Macedonia has excellent business climate, ranked 2nd in the world, and we were just in 96th place six years ago. According to the World Bank, in the last 5-6 years we are among the top 3-4 reformers in the world. This means that the business climate for both domestic and foreign investors is dramatically improved. Secondly, free trade agreements with all countries in the world and the opportunity of choosing Macedonia as a business location and covering the entire Europe but also an opportunity of covering other continents. Thirdly, sound macroeconomic policy. Fourthly, the lowest costs for doing business, lowest taxes, competitive costs in the rest, a rare opportunity in Europe to find educated peoples at such a low cost ready to join a company, free trade agreements with all the countries in Europe, low inflation and one of the lowest indebted countries in Europe”, Mr. Gruevski said.

Referring to the spheres of Macedonian economy that offer space for largest profit at potential investors, PM Gruevski underlined that oftentimes Macedonia is chosen by companies from sectors where competition is enormous and seek the lowest costs possible, and at the same time highly skilled people.

“These are usually part of the automotive industry, the area of electronics, such as ‘Kemet Electronics’ from the US, electronic parts from the automotive industry, as well as from the pharmacy sector, interested companies from the IT sector. You can see where the investors come from in Macedonia. They come to produce buses, spare parts, production in the chemical industry,” Mr. Gruevski said.

When asked why there is an insufficient number of foreign investments in Macedonia, as compared to the neighbouring countries, although according to Doing Business, Macedonia is a leader not only in the region but also in the world, PM Gruevski answered that this is partly due to global recession, mainly the European recession, and partly because Macedonia in the past was not on the investment maps.

“All of this has been done in the past several years. Neither Macedonia had these conditions nor had presentation of these conditions, because they were not good to present. He pointed out that 99% of what the government team says on the economic presentations has been done in the past 4 to 5 years.”

“The low taxes, free trade agreements, low costs in other parts for doing business. In the last 5-6 years we have introduced a number of new measures such as the regulatory guillotine, reduced prices for public services for building industrial facilities and hotels, a “one euro” starting price of land for industrial buildings… This is why we have started a special promotion, so that this information can reach out to many companies, because they do not know of this. We have global advertisements on CNN, on televisions in Turkey, the Netherlands and other countries, but they are only 30-second promotional clips and it is different when you come directly and present them and let them ask you questions. First you create conditions for what you want to advertise”, PM Gruevski said.

When asked how the diaspora can help the fatherland he said that it can be done both with investments and with lobbying of the good conditions in doing business.

“One cannot expect the diaspora to invest if there are no good conditions. If there are already good conditions, and they are already recognised by the World Bank, Forbes, then they are recognised by the diaspora as well. We can not expect the diaspora to invest just for the sake of patriotism, because they love Macedonia. They need to make profit. Now good conditions for making profit have been created and those well established entities in the business can invest. Mr. Gruevski said that they can help in another way – by lobbying for Macedonia, maintaining contacts and only those who already have a good business can invest. Most commonly, people that have tried doing business in their country of residence and have succeeded are investors”, stated the PM in his interview.

According to him, the financial and economic crisis with the over-indebtedness of Greece significantly affects the slow down in the name issue.

“It does affect. Significantly. Greece is using this as an alibi in front of the other international partners and it is a problem. This is partly an alibi, but it is also significantly defocused.”

Asked whether the postponement of the name talks between Macedonia and Greece has negative effects on attracting of foreign investments, PM Gruevski said that if this is put in the context of the membership in EU and NATO, the EU especially, it can be said that this has an unfavourable influence.

However, there are many companies which said that this is exactly what they like because we are not members of the EU and NATO, because they know that when joining the EU the competition will increase, the interest will be larger and for them, it will be less attractive to invest with low costs. But generally speaking, it is good for us to join the EU and NATO as soon as possible because the benefits will be larger, PM Nikola Gruevski said in the interview with Voice of America (VOA) in the Macedonian Language Programme.