Over 1,500 jobs should be created in accordance with contracts set to be signed by the government with eight companies by mid-January, PM Nikola Gruevski has said adding that two of those are Macedonian companies and the first ones to invest in the industrial zones.

One of the two Macedonian companies, which has zero foreign capital, will manufacture car parts and is expected to open 200 jobs. The other one will produce electronic components and plans to employ 300 people, Gruevski said in an interview with Sitel TV on Thursday.

Until January 15, he added, several foreign investments will be announced, including an American company, Turkish company, three German companies and an investment by a Macedonian Australian who has decided to return to his homeland. According to him, all of these investments are expected to result in a total of 950 jobs.

The government has recently passed laws establishing IT zones as part of the existing industrial zones, Gruevski announced. “Interest has been already shown for the IT zones and we are preparing steps and projects to develop these zones,” he said adding efforts were being made to set up tourism development zones.

The law on free healthcare zones regulates the construction of hospitals by investors focusing mainly on health tourism aimed at providing favorable conditions for patients from other countries to be treated in Macedonia, according to him. “Patients from Macedonia will be able to be also admitted and treated in these hospitals, however under different conditions so as to not threaten the private hospitals in Macedonia located outside the zone,” Gruevski told Sitel TV.