The procedure for registration of domains will be facilitated by introducing a system of registers, thus liberalising the market. This move will enable domains to be registered by companies having met the conditions to become registers in addition to the Macedonian Academic and Research Network (MARNET).

This was announced Tuesday by Minister of Information Society and Administration Ivo Ivanovski and MARNET director Saso Dimitrijoski following their meeting.

By liberalising domains, the companies interested in becoming registers will be able to register at MARNET in coming weeks, according to Ivanovski.

"As soon as MARNET as a relevant institution approves them to become registers, companies on the behalf of MARNET can sell domains to citizens electronically. The registers will introduce a fresh market in Macedonia with competition, whereas with additional services they will attract the citizens to register electronic domains," Ivanovski stated.

Back in 2010 when MARNET started operating as an independent institution, there were only 19.000 registered domains, whereas today 35.500 are registered under the domain ".mk". Liberalisation, Ivanovski added, will allow many legal entities to use the .mk domain, not only .com.

"It is in our interest as many web sites as possible to include .mk, because this indicator is measured in a number of indices, including the global innovation index by the UN and EU. It is expected the domain liberalisation to demonstrate that our information society is developed," the minister stressed.