Skopje, 16 December 2021 (MIA) – Economy Minister Kreshnik Bekteshi on Thursday called on all members of the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) to focus on increasing trade as way to make step toward full integration into EU’s internal market. Minister Bekteshi at a news conference presented the achievements of North Macedonia while holding CEFTA’s chairmanship throughout 2021. North Macedonia, he said, both as a country and CEFTA chairmanship holder, in 2021 aimed at strengthening regional cooperation between its members, which has been achieved to some extent. “All technical affairs have been already implemented. Unfortunately, certain decisions haven’t been made, but it’s not the fault of CEFTA Secretariat’s parties. It is due to the political will of the countries, which aren’t making important decisions for some other reasons,” Bekteshi said. He pointed out identification of all non-tariff barriers before eliminating them to facilitate trade. Emir Djikic, CEFTA Secretariat Director, said that trade in the region is on the rise thanks to CEFTA, which is paving the way for EU integration with respect to the establishment of a single market. One year after the Sofia summit, he said, negotiations under North Macedonia’s chairmanship have been launched with EU members for the expansion of green lanes leading to the EU countries. Also, Djikic said he hoped that the first agreement between the countries will be signed in early 2022, adding that trade agreements for next year are being negotiated by all parties and are intended to allow small and medium-sized enterprises to expand exchange of goods within the region. In the past four days, Skopje hosted CEFTA Week, which brought together over 300 participants from CEFTA’s seven members - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and UNMIK (on behalf of Kosovo). This year, during North Macedonia’s chairmanship, the focus was the implementation of the action plan on common regional market and promotion of efforts aimed at improving movement of goods and services in CEFTA markets. With support provided by the European Commission and the Regional Cooperation Council, steps have been taken to integrate into the common European market.