Frankfurt, 5 September 2023 (MIA) – The investment opportunities provided by North Macedonia, the government measures and the assistance received by foreign companies were presented at a roundtable discussion Tuesday at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Frankfurt, in front of the representatives of over 20 German companies from various fields.

Macedonian government officials highlighted the high level of economic cooperation between North Macedonia and Germany, evident through the presence of over 200 German companies on the Macedonian market, as well as the readiness to cooperate over future investment projects.

Ralf Schomann, representative of the investment consulting company Hoffmann Collegen, said that the interest of potential German investors and of the Government of North Macedonia is a win-win situation from the aspect of keeping young staff in the country. 

“Today it was yet again affirmed that the Government of North Macedonia is seriously interested in maintaining the country’s potential as a good market for investments, and why not? Instead of having thousands of people leave the country each year, the Government is investing in its country and at least half of these young people will remain there. This is simply a win-win situation for everyone,” said Schomann.

Antje Wandelt, the head of AHK North Macedonia, noted that Monday’s roundtable discussion once again demonstrated that German companies have a great interest in investments in the country.

“We had a lot of interesting talks, the companies posed concrete questions, over the type of labor force that Macedonia possesses, their qualifications, what kind of state aid is provided to potential investors. We reached conclusions with concrete questions and concrete interest for cooperation in our market,” said Wandelt.

The Deputy Prime Minister for economic affairs, Fatmir Bytyqi, said that based on the interest expressed by the representatives of the German business community, it would be realistic to expect German companies to continue to actively participate in the technological promotion, sustainable growth and development of the country’s economy.

“What is important is that we are talking about technologically advanced companies, established on the global markets, companies which don’t base their successes on cheap labor, but on human resources characterized by advanced knowledge, innovation, with skills acquired so they can be a part of the most modern technological production processes,” stressed Bytyqi.

The Deputy PM highlighted that German companies are of great help when it comes to aligning the standards of the Macedonian economy with those of the European Union. He also presented the current and planned government investments for the construction of road and railroad infrastructure.

The head of the Free Zones Authority, Jovan Despotovski, said that they sent two key messages – that the country is stable, small, but quite flexible and capable of adapting to the requests of investors if it recognizes the interest of the citizens in them, as well as that the country possesses the necessary human potential.

“We have diligent, hard-working people who want to work, however these people have to be paid. This was the message we conveyed to the investors today. What makes me happy is that it was affirmed that securing higher wages for our workers is not an issue. All the fears that emerged in some political and corporate circles that the growth of wages and our insistence on their growth would cause the process of investments to slow down have been proven false,” said Despotovski. 

The issue which was raised by the companies at the roundtable, said Despotovski, is not the cost of the labor force, but the qualifications and skills for which, he said, the Government has been developing programs in the past couple of years, and they’re producing results.

“The message is that we have potential, and I expect that with the meetings today and the meetings to follow by the end of the day with one big German bank and a big German company we will soon have the chance to present a new large German investment,” said Despotovski.

Bytyqi and Despsotovski are on a working visit to Germany, during which they signed an agreement with German lithium-ion batteries producer “BMZ” for the realization of a new investment set to create 750 new jobs.

Photo: MIA/Government