Skopje, 15 September 2023 (MIA) – Prosperity, growth, development and resilience can be achieved through creating strong interdependencies. We have to abandon the already established economic approach of creating dependencies and focus on interdependencies as a win-win approach in the medium and long run, said Deputy Prime Minister in charge of economic affairs, Fatmir Bytyqi at the “Markets, Institutions, and Economic Prosperity” panel of the third annual Skopje Economic Finance Forum (SEFF), held Friday in Skopje.

Bytyqi stressed that Europe lies on the EU’s principles of collaboration and joint action to secure stability, prosperity and a growth-conductive environment in order to achieve vibrant economies with high performances.

“This is Europe now, because only a high performance vibrant economy will bring opportunities for our citizens, especially our youth, to stay here, building their future, their families, in this country. So, we are building capacities and creating opportunities strengthening our economies, while at the same time walking the integration path towards the European Union,” said Bytyqi.

The Deputy PM said the region needs to focus on one single agenda – a joint regional action towards creating competitive and resilient economies based on four basic freedoms which are the essence of the European Union - freedom of movement of goods, workers, providing services and capital.

“Only by enhancing our joint competitiveness, we can provide higher development rates of our economies and make them ready for bigger challenges in our quest to be a part of the EU single market. Our action needs to be aimed towards building strong institutions, support and promotion of SMEs and creating more skilled human capital. I must additionally stress the importance of supporting research and innovations, and access to finance, which are inevitable on our way towards integration in the global value chains,” said the Deputy PM.

Policymakers, said Bytyqi, have to be led by vision, and not focus only on economic growth as the epicenter of their economic policies, instead they should focus on economic development since it addresses economic wellbeing and quality of life of nations in the broader perspective. The Deputy PM added that they must constantly work on the social wellbeing of all citizens, ensuring equal access to education, healthcare and employment as a starting point for all Western Balkan countries in order to continue on their path to maximize their potential.

“Now we come to the key ingredient of economic development, and that is financing. International financing is a corner store in the Western Balkan’s quest for EU integration. International funds from institutions like the European Investment Bank, EBRD and the World Bank are essential more than even to stimulate economic development, institutional strengthening, infrastructure advancement, legal and judicial reform, environment and energy transition, social development and wellbeing, cross-border collaboration, crisis resilience and stability,” said Bytyqi.

Photo: Printscreen