Next year there will be more money in the Budget intended for infrastructural projects, as well as funds for starting the reconstruction and completing the construction of the railroad at the Corridor 8 towards Bulgaria, and for the “Buy a house, Buy a Flat” project.

This is what Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Zoran Stavreski promised at the meeting held today with the businessmen from the Construction Chamber within the Macedonian Chambers of Commerce (MCC).

- We promised that next year we will implement new reforms in the area of construction permits by providing them electronically, which is significant for the construction sector, said Deputy Prime Minister Stavreski after the meeting.

The models for the Corridor 8 are being reviewed, he added.

- It will most likely be a combination of a part that will be constructed through a public private partnership, and the other part will be made with other means of finance, credit or other funds. The Corridor remains our strategic priority and the Government will provide suggestions soon, explained Stavreski.

According to Stavreski, foreign investors take the “Doing Business” Report of the World Bank into account when considering investments in countries.

- We perceive the Report as very important, not only for foreign investors, but also for domestic ones. We implement all the reforms for the people who invest in this country to feel that they invest in an improved business climate, and to view the Government as a partner that understands their difficulties and improves the business climate, stated Stavreski.

The increase in the civil engineering of 26 percent and the growth of the GDP of 5.2 percent come as a result of exactly the measures that the Government undertakes in this respect, highlighted Stavreski.

Regarding foreign investment, Stavreski pointed out that it should be measured by their relative size and according to the size of the country GDP, not in its absolute amount. It is quite normal for a country many times the size of Macedonia territorially and by commerce to obtain a larger amount of foreign investments, added Stavreski.

- But, in the economy, things are measured relatively or by investments according to the population numbers, or by investments regarding the GDP. Macedonia, in this part, has achieved the best results in the past five years, and for a period we had foreign investment in the amount of about 7 percent of the GDP, which is much more than Croatia, Albania or Serbia, emphasized Stavreski.

The pending foreign investments from the past few months, five or six of which are in the process of implementation, are not yet calculated in these numbers.

- These numbers, when we take them into account, will indicate how closely the investors pay their attention to the “Doing Business” Report, and, as a result of this and of what they feel in our country as an investment climate, along with the domestic investors, they commence to realize investment projects, stated the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Zoran Stavreski.