Your contribution for a better tomorrow of generations to come and the country's future is enormous. We see in you a partner towards implementing policies of significance for the state. Therefore, the care and protection of pensioners remains the Government's top priority, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said Tuesday at the 17. National Pensioners' Sports Games.

"Improvement of the living standard, respect and love, dignity in the mature period of your life, as well as peace and quiet in your daily lives is your necessity, but also our obligation. The care and protection of pensioners was and remains the Government's top priority", said PM Gruevski.

According to him, the increase of pensions, spa recreation, lowering of medicine prices, free bus transportation, improvement of health services and social protection, daycare centers and pensioners' clubs, and increased involvement of seniors in social life are some of the measures that would continue and be upgraded.

Minister of Labor and Social Policy Spiro Ristovski said cooperation of state institutions with the NGO sector is the key factor towards development of a democratic state, since good ideas always help improve the overall ambiance.

"The economic crisis has its effect on the social insurance, especially the payment of pensions. Certain states undertake restrictive measures in the pension insurance, resulting in reducing the rights or freezing of pensions for several years. Pensions in Macedonia are regularly paid", said Minister Ristovski.

Dragi Argirovski, president of the Macedonian Union of Pensioners' Associations, voiced satisfaction from the cooperation with Government institutions, which leads towards measures that continually enhance the state of pensioners in the country.