An Economic Agenda for the Republic of Macedonia

by Marco Ranieri

In August 2006 the right-wing political leader, Mr Nikola Gruevski, became the Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia . Since May 2003, he is also the leader of VMRO-DPMNE (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity), a Christian Democratic party which supports the admission of Macedonia to NATO and the European Union-EU.

He was Minister of Finance in the VMRO-DPMNE Government led by Ljubco Georgievski until September 2002; among Gruevski's main achievements in this role there were the privatisation of Fenimak (mineral-processing enterprise) and the implementation of financial reforms, including the VAT (Value Added Tax) of 18% (requiring fiscal receipts for all Macedonian businesses) which was a program designed to fight tax evasion. Gruevski's most famous program was "Kupuvajte makedonski proizvodi" ("Buy Macedonian products"), which promoted buying Macedonian products.

Mr Gruevski, with his program "100 Steps for Progress", will rule Macedonia for the next 4 years and the aim of this paper is to provide for him and his Government some policy guidelines that can be used to better integrate Macedonia in the world economy, via attracting more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and further developing foreign trade, in order to have a bigger economic development which has to be environmentally and social sustainable.

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