The Economic Chamber  of North-West Macedonia in partnership with the Kosovo Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Tirana, organized the B2B regional event for the first time this year. The idea of ​​this event was to have B2B meetings between regional companies, including those from the Republic of North Macedonia, the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Albania. The dominant companies at the event were part of three sectors: construction and construction materials, food production and retail. This event was also supported by the USAID Business Ecosystem Development Project.

At this important event, the greeting speech was given by the President of ECNWM, Mr. Nebi Hoxha, President of Assembly of Republic of North Macedonia Mr. Talat Xhaferi Prime Mr. Zoran Zaev, Minister of Economy of Republic North Macedonia, Mr. Kreshnik Bekteshi, USAID Representative in Northern Macedonia Erik Janowsky.

In addition to B2B meetings between companies, an Economic Forum was organized, divided into two panels: “Trade Facilitation through Institutional Cooperation between North Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania” and “Opportunities for Cooperation, Investments and Common.

“Increasing the competitiveness and longevity of a company depends largely on the networking that the company has created. The ECNWM, with its network established, has excellent prerequisites to drive the regionalization of enterprises from North Macedonia. In this regard, the focus should be on creating opportunities for expanding the market of companies in regional markets”. highlight the president of ECNWM Nebi Hoxha.

“The United States of America, through USAID programs, has supported the development of the private sector in this country for 25 years. During this period, our support has grown as partners develop and become more sustainable. Over the years, we have established partnerships with local organizations and national institutions to work together to achieve common goals. I am very proud to see the North-West Macedonia Chamber of Commerce taking the lead in leveraging local businesses with foreign buyers as well as strengthening ties with regional markets. We at USAID expect local organizations and institutions to take the lead in undertaking North Macedonia’s economic development initiatives” said Erik Janowsky, director of the USAID office in North Macedonia.

The goals of this great regional event were: to introduce regional businesses to each other, a good opportunity to promote companies, products and services, opportunities for collaboration between companies in the most important sectors; opening up new opportunities in all three markets that could be expanded to the European level as well as new regional cooperation.

The USAID Business Ecosystem Development Project, launched since 2017, is actively working to increase productivity, income and new jobs in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by building a sustainable business ecosystem. The goals of this project are: to improve the services provided by ECNWM to business; improve companies’ access to funding sources and increase investment by leading companies to improve the supply chain and workforce development.