Macedonia Sees Rise In Foreign Investments

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By Miki Trajkovski

The Macedonian government’s campaign to attract foreign investment is paying off as investments begin to materialise and big-name investors continue to visit the country to examine venture opportunities.

“We [hope to] bring [to Macedonia] as many foreign investments as possible, show professionalism, readiness and flexibility to co-operate,” Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Peshevski said.

Macedonia
Macedonia

On Wednesday (July 25th), the government signed a 415m-euro deal with Canada’s EurOmax Resources to build and work the Ilovica gold and copper mine. Last week, the Turkish Cevahir Holding initiated a 300m-euro investment for a luxury residential complex in Skopje’s Aerodrom municipality.

Similarly, Germany’s Lisa Draxlmaier GmbH will join a local partner in a 35m-euro project to produce car parts in a new facility in Kavadarci, which will employ 4,000 people in the first five years.

Within a year, Draxlmaier will build another factory in Kavadarci, which will supply car manufacturer Mercedes.

Officials said Draxlmaier’s choice of Macedonia validates Macedonia’s efforts to create attractive investment conditions — including attractive locations with support infrastructure and amenities — often government-supplied — in the seven technological-industrial development zones as well as expeditious electronic paperwork.

“We are practically giving investors land for free,” Victor Mizo, director of Macedonia’s Foreign Investments Agency, told SETimes.

Analysts said another attractive feature is Macedonia having the lowest taxes in Europe; capital gains and personal income are taxed at a flat rate of 10%. Foreign investors who re-invest the gains are freed from paying taxes.

World-renowned brand companies like Kemet Electronics, Tehnohose and Protek are finishing their factories in the industrial-development zone Skopje 1 — popularly known as Bunardzik — and will begin production this autumn.

Others, like the Belgian bus and industrial vehicles producer Van Hool as well as India’s Montherson and the US’s N to N Fiber, have bought land parcels or are already building facilities in the Skopje 1 zone.

Another aspect of the government’s efforts is bringing in some of the world’s wealthiest investors — including Mexico’s billionaire Carlos Slim, the Emir of Qatar Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and Subrata Roy who heads India’s biggest employer, the Sahara Group — to Macedonia to examine the investment opportunities.

“Their presence has a calming effect on troubled regional economies,” Atanas Dzurovski, professor of public finance at St Kliment Ohridski University in Bitola, told SETimes.

The investors’ visits are followed by company specialists for a closer examination of opportunities which range from developing tourist zones in Macedonia’s primary lakeside destinations — Ohrid, Struga, Prespa and Dojran — to locations for shooting movies.

“The region should view these forays as opportunities because the world’s big players seek to cut costs and seek inexpensive destinations as well as favorable business conditions,” Dzurovski said.

He explained that companies from the Middle and Far East and beyond increasingly value Macedonia for having signed agreements on free trade and market access to the EU.

“It is important to put the region on the map for the global investors. The big-name investors tend to look to invest in the whole region once they have established a beachhead,” Ljube Trpeski, former governor of Macedonia’s national bank, told SETimes.

SETimes

The Southeast European Times Web site is a central source of news and information about Southeastern Europe in ten languages: Albanian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, English, Greek, Macedonian, Romanian, Serbian and Turkish. The Southeast European Times is sponsored by the US European Command, the joint military command responsible for US operations in 52 countries. EUCOM is committed to promoting stability, co-operation and prosperity in the region.

6 thoughts on “Macedonia Sees Rise In Foreign Investments

  • July 27, 2012 at 1:25 pm
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    What? No Greeks to downplay and spit on Macedonia’s success?

    Reply
    • July 27, 2012 at 3:04 pm
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      Anyone investing in Greece will loose,and that is Samaras will want kick backs under the table with the pretense of”it is for patriotiv reasons” as he did with the 130 million in black garbage bags for propaganda againts Macedonia and Macedonian minority in occupied Aegean Macedonia.Remember 1995?.
      Remember what one of the founding fathers of the United States said”230 years later they are still described in the same way,”corrupted in their morals to such a degree,as to be faithless,perfidious race,destitute of courage…”

      Reply
  • July 28, 2012 at 4:25 am
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    It would be good if they invested in these places, Ohrid, Struga, Prespa and Dojran. The indigenous Albanians make up majorities in the first 3 while Dojran also has many Slavs, Vlachs, and Greeks.

    If the investments would help create jobs for our people it would be good as long as the skopjian authorities keep clear of the local council funds. The rampant corruption here is out of control, but the skopjians leadership fails to curb it as many of them are on the take as well.

    We know that many of the skopjian government’s ministers have bought expensive places around our local areas, like Ohrid and Struga. These same skopjian ministers have yet to declare their incomes and have raised many questions among the indigneous people and the Slavs of FYROM. Trust is far from many peoples lips here.

    We can only hope that as long as the investments are made above the table not so many skopjian authorities will get rich fast.

    Reply
  • July 28, 2012 at 8:11 am
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    @Apolodorus lambroideus and Peter

    Your “booming” economy has 10% higher unemployment and half the GDP/capita of Greece.(and thats with Greece’s economy as a trainwreck) Perhaps if you spent less time trying to usurp Greek history and more time actually working things would be better in FYROM

    Hey… Peter-the-Great_ski.. love your “human rights” and “good neighbourly relations” towards Greece there but I seem to have missed your answer. What did your government mean when it used to claim this about your sacred “Macedonain” identity?

    ‘We are not related to the northern Greeks who produced leaders like Philip and Alexander the Great. We are a Slav people and our language is closely related to Bulgarian.’ – FYROM´s Ambassador to Canada Gyordan Veselinov, Ottawa Citizen Newspaper, February 24 1999

    “We are Slavs who came to this area in the sixth century … We are not descendants of the ancient Macedonians” – Kiro Gligorov, FYROM’s first President, Foreign Information Service Daily Report, Eastern Europe, February 26, 1992 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBB8UjOHG_8

    ‘We do not claim to be descendants of Alexander the Great.’ – FYROM’S Ambassador Ljubica Acevshka, speech to US representatives in Washington on January 22 1999

    Reply
  • July 28, 2012 at 8:13 am
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    @Peter-the-Great-ski

    Is that the same United States that used to say this about your so-called “ethnic Macedonian” identity?

    “This (US) Government considers talk of Macedonian “nation”, Macedonian “Fatherland”, or Macedonia “national consciousness” to be unjustified demagoguery representing no ethnic nor political reality, and sees in its present revival a possible cloak for aggressive intentions against Greece” – US State Department Dec, 1944 (Foreign Relations Vol. VIII Washington D.C. Circular Airgram – 868.014/26)
    http://tinyurl.com/nel46d

    Funny how you never quote that.

    Reply
    • August 1, 2012 at 3:50 pm
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      yeah, and you noticed the date on that, 1944??? Are you really that stupid that you don’t understand American political stances change every few years?

      Reply

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