Consultations with the European Delegation on the Economic Reform Program 2022-2024

On February 18, 2022, Business Confederation of Macedonia participated in the consultations of the European Delegation for the Economic Reform Program 2022 – 2024 with the social partners and professional associations.

These consultations discussed the challenges and problems in the relevant areas, which affect the increase of competitiveness and economic growth of the country, as well as job creation.

The key challenges necessary reforms in order to support an inclusive and sustainable mid-term economic growth: 1) strengthening of human capital for inclusive development, 2) fostering the green transition and 3) improving the competitiveness of domestic companies, their integration in the global value chains and formalization of the economy.

The third challenge is related to the productivity growth of domestic companies aimed at increasing their competitiveness and thence facilitate their integration with the global value chains, as well as to tackle the large informal sector in order to cope with the unfair competition and increase the collection of public revenues. Domestic companies’ productivity was significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused a decline in demand for products and services, weaker confidence in supply chain partners and disruptions in the sourcing of raw materials.

“Social dialogue in the Republic of North Macedonia is significantly improving. This has been achieved thanks to the efforts and implemented projects of the International Labor Organization and their cooperation with the social partners. This also improves the impact of employers’ organizations. We believe that there is a need for greater and additional harmonization of the economic reform program with the government program in terms of the various micro and macroeconomic issues it covers. The lack of communication and cooperation between the central and local government must be improved in order to initially enable greater socio-economic development at the local and then at the national level.“,  said Mile Boskov, President of the Business Confederation of Macedonia.