Today were presented the results of the Fifth Business Environment Assessment in North Macedonia organized by the USAID Project Partnership for Better Business Regulation which is implemented by EPI CENTER in partnership with the Economic Chamber of North-West Macedonia, the Chamber for Information and Communication Technology (MASIT), the Economic Chamber of Macedonia and the Macedonian Chambers of Commerce. The presentation also included an analysis of the observed trends and changes in the business environment over the past five years. At the same time, in this event were marked the successes of the project that ends on December 31, 2020.

The keynote speakers were Mr. Drilon Iseni, Executive Director of the Economic Chamber of North-West Macedonia (ECNWM) and the current Chairman of the Platform for Public-Private Dialogue, Mr. Ljubomir Dimovski Director of the project “Partnership for better business regulation”, and Mr. Erik Janowsky, Country Representative of USAID North Macedonia. The findings of the research were presented by the consultant Mr. Vlatko Danilov.

Drilon Iseni emphasized that:

“The fact that we are all here to mark the successes of the project, even during this difficult situation, speaks for our determination that the mission of the project must be fullfiled despite the obstacles we encountered along the way.

With the help of USAID North Macedonia, for the first time in the country’s history, the four most powerful economic chambers came together with unified positions, with the sole purpose of protecting the interests of businesses. For the first time, with such a platform lead the Economic Chambers and not the Government, this fact represents a great success for the ecosystem of economic chambers but also proves the institutional maturity of the government.

What makes us proud as Chambers and partners of this Project is the fact that for the first time we have given the business sector the opportunity to disclose their issues to the Government and relevant institutions. Despite the same, it is a great achievement that we as chambers through the Platform started this dialogue, causing the end of the “embargo” era of state institutions towards business entities of the country.

The conclusions and recommendations from the analysis will be submited to the relevant authorities through the Public-Private Dialogue Platform consisting of the four above mentioned Economic Chambers to help create measures that will improve the business climate and render Government’s support to the private sector through measures aimed at dealing with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.