30.10.2020, Skopje – The Economic Chamber of North-West Macedonia will support 15 micro and small companies under the post-COVID-19 transformation program, financially supported by the USAID Business Ecosystem Project. The companies will gain direct support to ensure liquidity, to maintain jobs as well as to join the supply chain of the Chamber, which means expanding the domestic market through sales strategy, negotiation, marketing activities and crisis management.

“Through the program, we will support 15 local micro and small companies, which will become members of the Chamber in the next two years and will gain free membership in the first year. They will receive information on compliance with laws, business opportunities and access to finance. We offer training for distance and digital work, as well as e-commerce, provided by the Training Center at the Chamber, which will result in approaching new markets through digitalization. The Chamber will provide a range of promotional tools for each company and will create marketing content for social networks, video promotion and organization of meetings with other businesses, “said Drilon Iseni, Executive Director of the Economic Chamber of North-West Macedonia.

The Chamber believes and expects this support to help companies adapt and transform their operations accordingly to the COVID-19 virus pandemic.

The USAID Business Ecosystem Project has always positioned itself as a partner to its grantees, insisting on being as flexible as possible by adapting to current working conditions. This is especially important in the current pandemic conditions where the situation changes rapidly and is unpredictable.

This approach motivates and contributes to finding innovative solutions to adapt the programs of the organizations we support, such as the Chamber, creating more suitable conditions for achieving maximum results and meeting the needs of the end users of the service, which are businesses-Dejan Janevski, project director.

Companies will be selected through an open call and based on the principle “first come, first served”. Each company will receive its own Post-Covid 19 transformation program, i.e. they will gain business plan, sales training, online marketing, negotiations, then mentoring and promotional videos.

With this, says Iseni, companies will receive free membership, maintain existing markets, expand their business, open new markets and increase their sales, promotion and manufacturing capacities, create new jobs and will increase their incomes.