Skopje, 7 September 2021 (MIA) - EU Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni pointed out that North Macedonia has shown steady progress and it continues to achieve success in EU-related reforms. Gentiloni addressed via video link on Tuesday the fifth panel within the conference in Skopje on post-Covid economic recovery.  Representatives of international financial institutions, the business sector and the executive and local government from the country and the region debated the economic recovery and growth after the Covid crisis. “I'm really glad that North Macedonia’s framework is fully in line with the EU investment plan, although there is room for even greater progress. Promoting energy efficiency, natural gas as a transitional step in the decarbonisation process, investing in renewable energy, increasing access to broadband, e-services and digital skills are just some of the key challenges your country faces,” Gentiloni said. He stressed that North Macedonia is a pioneer in the implementation of last year's policies. “I hope that the EU member states will reach an agreement to start accession negotiations with North Macedonia,” said Gentiloni. According to IMF Executive Director Paul Hilbers, North Macedonia has green finance and digitalisation high on its agenda. “Tomorrow is the country's Independence Day, and this is the right time to commend the authorities for the progress they have made in these important areas of economic and financial development,“ said Hilbers via video link. Minister of Environment, Naser Nuredini, underlined that green, ecological investments are long-term and that should be explained to the private sector and the citizens. “We must take action, if we don’t do that, our generation will be to blame for that," Nuredini said. Macedonian Minister of Agriculture, Arjanit Hoxha, referred to digitalization and green economy, saying that investments in modern technologies are one of the key changes that will define faster agro development. “Our task is to further strengthen the green economy, because life has shown us that climate, health and the economy are strongly intertwined and interdependent,” said Hoxha. According to him, now is not the time for analysis, but for action. The Minister of Information Society, Jeton Shaqiri, announced investments in digital infrastructure and new measures to support the IT sector. He encouraged students to get more education in this area. “The future of the country is digital and green. Our goal is to introduce additional measures to help the IT sector, so that it can continue to grow smoothly, to have 25,000 employees in this sector by the end of 2030, compared to 13,000 current employees. We encourage students to study in the IT sector. Our goal is for four percent of graduates to be in this sector, twice as many as in 2020. We plan to invest more in infrastructure. By the end of this year, 99 percent of households will be covered by 4G signal, 83 percent will be covered by high-speed broadband signal, compared to 78 percent last year. By the end of 2023, we will have at least one city completely covered by 5G signal. Internet connection of one gigabit per second for all public institutions by 2029,” stressed Shaqiri. The Minister said that the project "Document Management System" is being implemented in order to connect as many public institutions as possible. “This system will shorten the time for processing documents and will reduce the use of paper. Our goal is to have 95 percent of all major public online services by 2030, compared to 151 by 2020. Our citizens will have access to their electronic medical records and 80 percent of them will use a digital identification solution by 2030. The government and the ministry are on their way to digitizing and developing the green economy,” said Shaqiri. The final conclusions of the conference will be presented by the Minister of Finance Fatmir Besimi, the Deputy Minister of Finance Dimitar Kovachevski and the State Secretary at the Ministry of Finance Jelena Tast.