During his investment promotion visit to Columbus, Ohio, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and members of  the Government team met with representatives of the Macedonian diaspora.

"The assistance Macedonia is receiving from its diaspora is extremely helpful. It might look like something small and insignificant to you when you are helping support a relative of yours living in Macedonia, but this help, put together, given year after year for decades, really amounts to a great source of support for the country", Prime Minister Gruevski told the diaspora representatives gathered in Columbus. Macedonia receives an estimated billion EUR every year in remittances from its diaspora in the United States, Canada, Western Europe and Australia.

Gruevski said that he expects the ties between the diaspora and the native country to improve, now that Macedonians living abroad have the right to vote in general and Presidential elections. Macedonians in the diaspora elect three members of Parliament, one for the Americas, one for Europe and Africa and one for Australia and Asia. According to Gruevski, the support given by the diaspora goes beyond the direct financial assistance, and includes helping establish connections which eventually lead to investment in Macedonia by businessmen approached by Macedonians abroad.

Blagoja Stanishevski, head of the Macedonian community in Columbus, said that the large Macedonian community in Ohio will continue to help its native country. "We are all in this together and on the same page. We know this when we see that Macedonia reciprocates by issuing passports to those of us that were until now unable to take these documents, and by allowing us our right to vote", Stanishevski said.

At the gathering in Columbus, participants were also informed of the Birthright Macedonia program that brings young Macedonians from the diaspora to intern in institutions or businesses in the native country. One of the participants, Filip Jotovski, called on as many young Macedonians as possible to take advantage of the program that will allow them to get re-acquainted with the culture of their old country, as well as to contribute to its future.