Skopje, 5 September 2023 (MIA) – In a statement after his bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, within the frameworks of the Tallinn Digital Summit 2023, Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski highlighted the importance of the digital transformation on the country’s path to the European Union, as well as other topics discussed during his visit to Estonia.

According to a government press release, Kovachevski said at the Summit they spoke about the country’s development in the field of telecommunication networks and digitization.

“North Macedonia is one of the countries in the Balkans and in Southeast Europe which possesses one of the most developed telecommunication networks, which is completely digitized, and a country which has the largest 5G coverage at the moment. This is an excellent foundation for the development of digital tools, as well as for the development of numerous government services which will be digitized and which we are working on through the plan being implemented by the Government of North Macedonia,” said Kovachevski. 

The Prime Minister also held a meeting with the Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union, Doreen Bogdan-Martin, during which, according to the PM, they highlighted the “excellent cooperation since North Macedonia’s independence.”

“Additionally, she highlighted the fact that our experts, engineers in the field of telecommunications, and IT technologies are highly valued by the International Telecommunication Union, and we also spoke about increasing and deepening our cooperation in terms of solutions that could speed up the digitization of our public services,” added Kovachevski.

Kovachevski assessed his meeting with Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as friendly and said Estonia is one of the country’s biggest friends, especially in terms of support for EU enlargement.

“We spoke about bilateral, but also about multilateral issues because we are both NATO members. We spoke about the support that both of us provide to Ukraine in their fight for democracy and territorial integrity, following Russia’s unjustified invasion. We also spoke about our cooperation in terms of North Macedonia’s digitization, considering the fact that Estonia is one of the most developed countries when it comes to digitization. This refers to a large number of projects being led in our country, as well as those that will follow, especially the introduction of an electronic ID for the citizens of North Macedonia, a project which has already been launched through an action plan at the Interior Ministry and other appropriate institutions in the country,” said Kovachevski.

Kovachevski noted that North Macedonia is in the accession phase for the Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence located in Estonia.

“Fairly soon we will see North Macedonia, i.e., the experts from our country that will be present when it comes to the promotion of the cybersecurity of our institutions. I would like to thank the hosts for the warm welcome and for the great support we have from Estonia, their Government, in terms of North Macedonia’s EU accession, as well as in terms of adopting decisions that we need to adopt for this process,” said Kovachevski.

Photo/Video: Government of North Macedonia