Skopje, 6 November 2024 (MIA) - Scrap Sunday as a non-working day and make it possible for IT engineers to work from home with reduced working hours, the Chamber of Commerce for Information and Communication Technologies – MASIT urged during a meeting with Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski on Wednesday.

MASIT President Aneta Antova Pesheva said that the ICT industry hoped that digital transformation in the country would happen as quickly as possible.

"We demand major changes to the Law on Labor Relations. I hope that our cooperation will continue. We would also like to welcome the country's Digital Transformation Council. We hope that digital transformation will happen soon, which means digitizing all papers and documents. Then we will enter a phase of interoperability between institutions so that citizens can feel that something has been achieved, and that the processes will run faster," Antova Pesheva noted.

She added that MASIT has proposed establishing public-private partnerships with domestic and security certified firms that will assist the authorities and ministries with expert staff. 

Mickoski commended the cooperation with MASIT and said that all meetings so far have been constructive, producing many ideas and suggestions that result into policies.

"It's impressive that as an ICT industry we have more than half a billion of euros in exports for 2023, which I believe continues to grow, adding value to our economy. Many of the people working in the ICT industry, that is, more than 20,000 employees, a little more than 21,000 in 2023 in the ICT industry, are people who remained here, at home, and are fighting not only for their families and their existence, but also for their homeland, which is why they have my respect considering they are in high demand and the offers they receive," Mickoski stressed. 

Talks reviewed everything that had been discussed previously, the PM stated. In terms of the country’s digitization, the PM reminded that a special ministry exists for it – the Ministry for Digital Transformation.

"The ministry is devoted. In just a few months they've made big strides. I expect that to continue in the future. It is not enough, today we reviewed a few parameters; I expect the IT culture in the country to increase, become more accessible to users, so that we at least reach the European average since we're below that average. As an engineer, I personally encourage and support it. There should be no dilemma here," Mickoki said.ssh/ad/

Photo/Video: MIA/Government