The government continues organizing visits to companies in order to be directly informed about the issues facing businessmen in their everyday activities. The fourth cycle of visits, part of the project "Learning from the Business Community", envisages visits to be paid to at least 150 companies.

A call for companies willing to join the project was issued Wednesday and will last until Oct. 5.

"The project establishes direct communication between the government and the business community. By visiting companies and talking directly with businessmen, the government is informed first-hand about the challenges and issues facing the Macedonian companies in their everyday work. This kind of contact enables the detected problems to be analyzed and, if possible, the government to find systematic measures to solve them," the Deputy PM for economic affairs, Vladimir Pesevski told a news conference on Wednesday.

Over 50% of the requests submitted by the business community have been realized thus far, according to him.

"The main benefit of the project lies in the fact that most initiatives and proposals by the business community play a role in the creation of economic policies. Based on the requests of the business community, fresh strategies have been adopted, many projects have been implemented and amendments to several laws have been made," Pesevski said.

More than 400 companies across Macedonia in the field of metallurgy, metalworking, construction, chemical and textile industry have been visited in the past three cycles of the project, which was launched in 2010.