Economy's competitiveness is exceptionally significant and crucial for the economic growth of a small country such as Macedonia. Analysis has shown that only five percent of Macedonian companies make exports, a small portion of products are exported at the same markets. The World Bank recommends greater support to exports, foreign direct investments, innovations and enhanced enforcement of business climate improvements, said participants at Friday's presentation of the World Bank's Macedonia Competitiveness Assessment Policy study titled "Making Exports a Catalyst for Economic Growth".

"The assessment recognizes the fact that Macedonia's economic policies are among the best in Southeast Europe, especially when it comes to adopting stable macroeconomic policies and extensive structural reforms that have resulted in significant improvement of the business climate. The country's present challenge is economy's upwards transition, which achievement will lead to development of a much more competitive export sector", say World Bank experts who developed the study.

The analysis has demonstrated that exports have sharply risen in the past decade, but more than 75 percent of export growth has come from existing exporters who sell the same products at the same markets. Vulnerabilities appear in the fact that largest number of exporters are micro-companies with less than ten employees, which have difficulties in surviving at markets outside, the exporting basket is still focused on certain goods - metals and minerals - where prices are susceptible to global economic trends, whereas medium and large exporters in large production sectors do not manage to use innovations and quality as source of competitiveness.

The World Bank experts stress that a positive sign is the strategy for attraction of foreign investments, which is gradually yielding results.

"New investments in production, located in zones for technological and industrial development, will have a transformation effect on the exporting basket", reads the assessment.

It says that export support and foreign direct investments should represent the foundation.

"Macedonia has a low competitiveness level, a small number of exporting products that are not sophisticated", said World Bank economist Jose Guilherme Reis.

Macedonia project leader John Gabriel Goddard emphasized that current export support is not sufficient, whereas Technological-Industrial Zones should be developed, since they represent a good element for attraction of FDIs.

Vice Premier for Economic Affairs Vladimir Pesevski said a portion of the Government's policies aimed at parallel increase of exports and improvement of competitiveness.

"The initial position of Macedonia's economy in this section is not great. We have a relatively small number of exporting companies, the degree of products' added value and their quality is moderate", said Pesevski and referred to data of rising exports in the past couple of years.

With regards to effects from developments in Europe, he stressed that Macedonia cannot stay immune, but can mitigate them by securing a relatively good business climate, increased consumption at the domestic market, signing of free trade agreements and other measures.

Dimitar Bogov, Governor of the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia, said there is consensus among creators of economic policies that improvement of competitiveness is not created by devaluation, but through structural reforms.

"Stable exchange rate of the Denar and structural reforms will lead to increase of competitiveness of Macedonia's economy", underlined Bogov.