The business climate in Macedonia is continually improving, Swedish businessmen should visit the country and use its investment benefits, whereas unused opportunities for commercial and investment cooperation are enormous, said Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski at a business forum in Stockholm on Monday.

The forum organized by the Swedish Trade Council was attended by a large number of businessmen. PM Gruevski was accompanied by Deputy PM for Economic Affairs Vladimir Pesevski, Ministers for Foreign Investments Vele Samak and Bill Pavleski, as well as deputy director of the Agency for Foreign Investments and Export Promotion Hristijan Delev.

Swedish Trade Minister Eva Björling also referred to the continual improvement of conditions for doing business in Macedonia.

"The continual improvement of the business environment in Macedonia represents an incentive for strengthening of bilateral economic cooperation", said Björling, voicing Sweden's support to Macedonia's EU integration.

PM Gruevski stressed the fact that the Government team can see up close the success of the third most competitive economy in global terms, but also one of the technologically most advanced states.

"This evokes admiration and enormous respect for the diligence and commitment of the Swedish people. The homeland of great brands in the automotive, pharmaceutical, wood and telecommunications industries swiftly emerged from the recession in 2008 and 2009, and unlike many other European economies, has registered economic growth", said Gruevski.

According to him, taking into consideration the economic potentials and excellent bilateral friendly relations, there is conviction over the enormous unused potentials for commercial and investment cooperation, whereas the forum is the right step for their identification.

Gruevski referred to the Government's comprehensive reforms in the business environment, putting the country among the three top reformers in the World Bank's "Doing Business" report.

The PM also emphasized that Macedonia's economy has been characterized by macroeconomic stability and average inflation rate of 2.5 percent, along with a low budget deficit and low indebtedness amounting to 26 percent of the GDP, 10-percent flat tax, tax-free profit and lowering of social contributions.

Moreover, Gruevski briefed the Swedish businessmen on the Regulatory Guillotine project, which aims at simplifying portion of the regulations and annulling non-essential obligations of businesses.

"Taking into account that the dynamic economic growth in the globalized world increasingly depends on the qualified workforce structure, Macedonia has made investments in the human capital. Budget funds for education have increased, access to university education has improved, especially in mathematics, technical and information sciences. Sweden is maybe the best example that investments in the human capital accelerate economic growth", he said.

Gruevski stressed today's forum should inform potential investors and trading partners over Macedonia's economic policies and investment opportunities, whereas Swedish businessmen should visit the country and use its comparative advantages.

Deputy PM Pesevski, Ministers for Foreign Investments Samak and Pavleski, and deputy director of the Agency for Foreign Investments and Export Promotion Delev briefed Swedish businessmen on potentials of Macedonian economy based on its macroeconomic stability, strategic location between Corridors 8 and 10, availability in natural resources, competitive workforce.

The Government team also held individual meetings with interested companies in the fields of tourism, investment banking, automotive industry and medical technologies.

Earlier, PM Gruevski met with Swedish counterpart Fredrik Reinfeldt, Trade Minister Eva Björling, and Swedish Trade Council CEO Ulf Berg.

Later in the day, Gruevski is set to attend a reception hosted by Stockholm Mayor Margareta Bjork.

On Tuesday, Gruevski will meet Parliament Speaker Per Westerberg and afterwards depart for Finland.