Number of Foreign Tourists in Macedonia keeps Increasing

In October 2011, the number of tourists in Macedonia amounted to 49,379 and the number of bed-nights reached 119,198, informed the Macedonian State Statistical Office.
These figures show that the number of tourists increased by 17 percent and the number of bed-nights by 24.1 percent compared to October last year.In the same period, the number of Macedonian tourists dropped by 5.8 percent, while the number of foreign tourists increased by 35.2 percent.
Year-on-year, the number of bed-nights of Macedonian tourists increased by 6.1 percent despite the decrease of the number of tourists, and the number of bed-nights of foreign tourists grew by 41.2 percent. Analyses on what this really means for the state budget will be published in a week.

Macedonia has a Trade Surplus with Belgium

Belgium is one of rare countries with which Macedonia generates trade surplus.
According to the latest statistical data, the surplus amounted to USD 50 million in 2010 and USD 14 million in the first nine months of this year.
In terms of the total trade with the EU, trade with Belgium accounts for 4 percent. According to the Macedonian State Statistical Office, Macedonia exports tobacco, vegetables, ferronickel, textile products and sugar to Belgium.
On the other hand, motor vehicles, oils, iron, steel and plastic products are imported from Belgium.

Belgian JetAirFly to Connect Brussels and Skopje

New air connection will be established between Skopje and Brussels by Belgian airlinie JetAirFly.

The ticket cost is set at 79 euros. Flights are scheduled to start on May 11, 2012.

JetAirFly from Brussels will operate in a 'triangle' fashion in it that it is first going to land in Ohrid and then Skopje (Brussels - Ohrid- Skopje).

Kaizer Chiefs close 13. Taksirat festival

British indie-rock band "Kaizer Chiefs" closed the 13. Taksirat music festival with a thunderous performance in a packed "Metropolis Arena" at Skopje Fair on Saturday evening.

Kaizer Chiefs came to Skopje straight from Paris prior to their tour that includes over 20 concerts. The popular English band came for the first time in Macedonia, promoting its 'best of' and latest album "The Future is Medieval".

Besides Kaizer Chiefs, Taksirat's final evening included domestic bands Verka and T.B.Traceri, as well as Clawfinger, Asian Dub Foundation, Fat Joe and Buraka som sistema.

Over the past week, audiences had the chance to see a number of musicians and bands, including Dubioza Kolektiv, Diskobajagi, B-real, Psycho Realm, Atari Teenage Riot, S.A.R.S., Jaya The cat, Kawasaki 3p, Nezni Dalibor, Rise of Artificial, General Woo feat, Lil Bear & Dirty Hairy, Canon, Glasnom, Kanton 6, Project 2501, Raw’N’Wicked, DJ Slave, Scratch That Drum, Shutka Roma Rap, Kreepr and Selector Lazy Face.

In the course of its 13-year existence, Taksirat festival has presented exceptional musical names, including Juliete Lewis, Moonspel, Elemental, Hladno Pivo, Guano Apes, Kiril Dzajkovski, Delinquent Habits, Eye Cue, Weding dub., Fun Lovin' Criminals, The Stranglers, Wailers, Iggy pop& The Stooges, DJ Timo Maas, Тiga, The Roots, Marky Ramone, Swayzak, Neville Staple (the Specials), Manu Chao La Ventura and many more.

St. Clement Award goes to Archeologist

The commission in charge of allocating the St. Clement of Ohrid state award has decided upon this year's recipients in the field of education, culture and art.

Archaeologist Dragi Mitrevski is the winner of the 2011 St. Clement of Ohrid award for his achievements in the area of education, the Ministry of Culture says in a press release.

In the field of culture and art, the recognition is presented to academician and writer Luan Starova and painter Nikola Fidanoski.

The accolade will be presented to this year's laureates at a ceremony on the Day of St. Clement of Ohrid (Dec. 8).

The St. Clement of Ohrid state award is the highest recognition for life achievements in the field of education, culture, art, health-care, sports, environment protection and social activities.

Macedonia presented as gateway for running Japanese businesses in Europe

Macedonia's investment opportunities have been presented for the first time before the Japanese business community in Osaka. Agriculture, food and wine production, manufacturing of car components and low income tax of 10% compared to high taxes in Japan are the most distinguished sectors, which Macedonia is known for, according to the director of the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) for Osaka, Suzuki Yatsushi.

Investment opportunities offered by the Republic of Macedonia as a gateway for running businesses in Europe were presented at the second business forum organised by a government delegation led by PM Nikola Gruevski in cooperation with JETRO before representatives of several Japanese companies from the Osaka Prefecture.

Macedonia, the JETRO director said, in recent years has improved its business procedures and now it is ranked 22nd on the Doing Business list by the World Bank, whereas Japan is 20th on the same list.

PM Gruevski in his address underlined the profound respect of the strong collective working ethics and innovative brilliance of Japan, which has helped the hard-working and intelligent nation of Japan to establish the third biggest economy in the world, the government said in a press release.

"The Republic of Macedonia in the past several years for many has become one of the most pleasant surprises and one of the most positive economic examples in Europe," Gruevski noted.

According to the press release, he said that Macedonia's achievements had been recognised by the World Bank in its Doing Business report in which Macedonia was one of the most improved economies and business destinations, while in the 2012 report it was ranked 22nd, thus being higher on the list compared to 19 out of 27 EU member countries. Macedonia's rating is seen as stable and with positive perspectives in a report recently published by the credit rating agency Fitch in circumstances when the agency has lowered the ratings of over 10 European countries - which indicates that Fitch differentiates Macedonia and its policies compared to other countries. According to Gruevski, it came as a result of the Macedonian government's commitment to improve the business climate and working conditions for both domestic and foreign companies.

"Our goal is to attain economic growth, to develop the private sector and to open new jobs. Consequently, we work very hard to enable favourable conditions for companies to make profits and to achieve double benefit - for companies' management and the living standards of Macedonian citizens," Gruevski noted.

"The government is addressing one of its most important challenges to provide educational opportunities for its citizens that are required by modern societies. Macedonia has significantly increased its funding for education, expanded the access to higher education and boosted the use of computers and Internet in public schools and universities. These measures resulted in attracting many famous foreign companies in Macedonia," the PM added.

By implementing a series of structural and institutional reforms, PM Gruevski said that growth and efficiency were being supported as well as investments leading to dynamic market economy, which on its part provided flexibility for the structural changes needed for Macedonia to succeed on international markets and to adapt towards the challenges on the road to EU accession.

Vice PM and Minister of Finance Zoran Stavreski also delivered an address at the business forum presenting country's macroeconomic policy, reforms realized in the tax system, cadastre and central register as well as the investment opportunities in the sector of infrastructure and energy, reads the press release.

Business presentations were also delivered by Minister for Foreign Investments, Bill Pavleski, director of the Agency for Foreign Investments and Export Promotion, Visar Fida and director of the Directorate for Technological Industrial Development Zones, Viktor Mizo.

The Osaka business forum wraps up the visit of the government's delegation led by Premier Gruevski to Japan, where the PM met with Crown Prince Naruhito and his Japanese counterpart Yoshihiko Noda and other government officials. Two business forums in Tokyo and Osaka were organised during the visit as well.

Macedonian Construction Companies Enter New Markets

Macedonian construction companies are considered one of the best in Europe. Because of this the volume of new work has increased in Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Italy and Ukraine, whereas on other markets, Macedonian companies reported a decrease. On the other hand, Montenegro and France are new markets.

Construction companies conducted construction work worth MKD 1.7 billion in Macedonia in the first nine months.

This is 8.9 percent less than in the same period of 2010. According to the data of the Macedonian State Statistical Office, construction companies agreed construction work worth MKD 2 billion on foreign markets. This is 48.9 percent less than in the same period last year due to financial crisis.

Macedonia Enhances Cooperation with Argentina

At the presentation of the Argentinean economy and market at the Macedonian Chamber of Economy, future cooperation between Macedonia and Argentina was promoted.

This cooperation represents entry into the South American economic community MERKOSUR, which has a market of 298 million customers. 

This was said by Guillermo Salvador Azrak, Argentinean ambassador in Sofia in charge of Macedonia. He explained that MERKOSUR’s full members are also Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, while Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela and Columbia are affiliated members.

Azrak added that there is a lot more manoeuvring room and possibilities for improvement of economic cooperation between the two countries.

Kromberg & Schubert in Bitola

Germany-based company Kromberg & Schubert will start building a plant in Bitola in December. The long awaited plant for production of car cables will start employing workers as of May. At first, it will hire 500 people and then the number will grow to 2,500 people.
Moreover, another six investments in Bitola are expected. They pertain to construction of hotels, but some investors are also interested in timber, food and milk industry. In the meantime, the government’s team presented investment possibilities in Macedonia last week.
Several Austrian and German companies have already announced that they are interested in investing in Macedonia. Allegedly, Siemens and BMW are among the interested investors. Moreover, the government team has already agreed cooperation with Teksport, which already has two plants in Macedonia.

Japan, Macedonia agree to boost tourism, study, business exchanges

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his visiting Macedonian counterpart Nikola Gruevski agreed Wednesday to boost their countries' tourism, study and business exchanges, Japanese officials said.
Gruevski, the first Macedonian prime minister to visit Japan, voiced hope that his visit will strengthen bilateral ties, after Noda thanked the Balkan country for its aid for Japan in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Gruevski also expressed his country's intention to open an embassy in Japan, the Foreign Ministry said.At the outset of their meeting, which was open to the press, Noda assured his visitor that "reconstruction in disaster-hit areas is underway and the supply chains have almost fully recovered.
"Macedonia, which gained its independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991, is aiming for economic development through foreign capital.