Skopje, 22 July 2022 (MIA) – We are constantly introducing measures to prevent the rising of the prices of basic food products, like the measures adopted at the last Government session, namely an export ban for certain products and the abolition of import tariffs, said Minister of Economy Kreshnik Bekteshi on Friday. “When it comes to direct measures in the form of direct support, the Ministry is about to finish designing a new set of measures in cooperation with the Chambers of Commerce. In line with the means of the country, the measures will target vulnerable groups who need help the most. We will offer such support and most likely, it will begin to be realized from September,” said Bekteshi. The measures, he said, will target all those citizens who need help the most during crises like these. “These are the people who receive guaranteed minimum assistance, pensioners with low income and other categories of citizens who lack the appropriate income to both pay their bills and get by through the month,” clarified Bekteshi. He underlined that the way in which these measures will be implemented is to be determined by the Ministry of Finance, and added that it should be as simple as possible so that the aid can reach those who really need it. The Minister said that next week as part of the “Open Balkan” initiative in Tirana, working meetings will be held with the ministers from Albania and Serbia, where new measures will be discussed and put forward in order to fulfill the food and electricity needs of the citizens from the countries in the region. “In Tirana we will talk in detail about each country’s need for certain products, whether those are agricultural products or electricity, in order to try to cover the needs of our countries. Even though we have an export ban on wheat and flour, when we discuss these issues, we will analyze the needs of Albania, Serbia and our country. Those measures can be changed on a weekly basis if there is interest to export products from our country to these two countries and if we have a need for certain products from Serbia and Albania. This also applies to electricity and fuels in case they are available in a certain country,” said Bekteshi. ad/ba/