Macedonia Receives 'Doing Business' Award

Macedonia earned the reward by ranking third place in the World Bank’s “Doing Business” report.

On behalf of the Macedonian Government, Deputy PM and Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski was there to accept the highly esteemed prize.

“The feeling is nice when receiving such an award from the world’s best renowned institution for the assessment of the business climate,” Stavreski was quoted by Macedonia’s MIA news agency as saying.

This “is a great success and recognition for reforms being made for improvement of the business climate. Even bigger success is that for the third year in a row Macedonia is so highly ranked,” Stavreski noted.

In the latest “Doing Business” list, which is seen as one of the most comprehensive indicators for the economic reforms countries implement, the small Balkan state made a jump of 37 places in relation to 2008.

“The recognition of the World Bank means that the important and sustainable steps of the government are recognised,” Penelope Brook, the director in “Doing Business” said.

Macedonia in recent years has made a series of changes to improve its business environment, such as easing the administrative procedures for opening businesses, lowering the taxes for the economy, providing infrastructure and support for Greenfield investments and other moves.

However, the country marked a significant boost in FDI only in 2008 when it attracted some half billion euros and its economic growth surpassed 5 per cent.
 
Following the global crisis which erupted last year, many investors have canceled or postponed their planned ventures and the country barely finished 2009 with positive economic growth, registering some one percent.

The country’s unemployment rate is still a staggering 33 per cent and the average wage does not surpass 250 euros.

The World Bank and the IMF have forecast steady growth for Macedonia this year and if all goes well they predict that from 2011 the country can hope to boost its progress to pre-crisis levels.