Skopje, 10 April 2023 (MIA) – The first AI-based public sector digital assistant ADA has officially started working today. The companies will be able to get full information about the investment conditions in the country and the state aid being offered, making North Macedonia part of global digital world trends.

PM Dimitar Kovachevski, the Deputy PM in charge of Economic Affairs Fatmir Bytyqi, the Deputy PM for European Affairs Bojan Marichikj, the Minister of Information Society and Administration Azir Aliu and the director of the Investment and Technological Development Fund Festim Halili attended the presentation.

“ADA offers all information for financial support by the state, and it will be upgraded with other important services for the state sector and the citizens. That way, we will influence the increase of institutional transparency, reducing corruption and eliminating the human factor from the processes. The implementation of this first digital assistant will accelerate the process of providing services to the citizens and company reps,” the PM said.

“World trends are increasingly becoming more focused on AI. Its possibilities are limitless. The use of AI and computerization is applied in the public sphere and in the work of our institutions. We are working on issuing electronic IDs for the citizens of this country,” he added.

The PM noted the record payments of EUR 23 million, as well as the 410 supported companies last year, and that an investment one stop shop was created in 2020 in order to help local and foreign investors, to contribute to competitiveness and company liquidity and help the local economy, all while in conditions of an economic and energy crisis.

The FITR director said that the project financed by the Fund is just the start of the initiatives of this kind to offer more efficient communication with local and international companies that are interested in investments.

“The fact that we’ve co-financed over EUR 66 million and 30 million from the companies that are our users to develop over 1000 projects, and EUR 1.5 million to develop three accelerators in our country, attests to the fact that FITR is one of the driving forces of the state economy and support for the business ecosystem in the country,” Halili said.

Azir Aliu said that the Ministry of Information Society and Administration is preparing several national strategies, including the ICT and cyber-security strategies, and a working group to create a digitization agency to implement these strategies.

Deputy PM Bytyqi said that ADA is the response to the State Department report for the fight against corruption relating to state aid and supporting investments where transparency is key to suppress corruption.

ADA will be available 24/7 at ada.gov.mk, it will be able to serve an unlimited number of users simultaneously and will provide the same information to avoid manipulation.

At the same time, it will offer information to the citizens and potential investors by being available on the Government’s website, as well as FITR, TIDZ and Invest Macedonia’s websites. One of its main services is to present North Macedonia as a favorable business destination, as well as recommend personalized financial support.

It will also create a report to invest in measures of interest, which will be sent to a potential investor and used as a jumping off point for negotiations, and it will send investor profiles to the Government.

ADA can be integrated in its next stages in other service-giving institutions, such as the Customs Administration, online services etc. dk/sk/

Photo: MIA