Skopje, 20 June 2022 (MIA) – Since the beginnings of the national and independent financial system in the country, the Securities and Exchange Commission has taken its place and gives its significant contribution to the functioning of the state, Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski told Monday's event marking the 30^th anniversary of the establishment of the Securities and Exchange Commission. “Today, 30 years later, the Securities and Exchange Commission is an independent body that successfully fulfills its mission, to protect investors, to create and maintain a fair, secure, transparent and efficient securities market and to facilitate attracting capital, contributing to economic growth and development of the country,” Kovachevski said, according to his office. Kovachevski pointed out that the Securities and Exchange Commission, together with the Ministry of Economy, the National Bank, the Macedonian Stock Exchange, and the Central Securities Depository, participated with substantial input in the creation of the Financial Market Development Strategy, which the Government has adopted at the proposal of the Ministry of Finance. “This strategy is aimed at dynamizing the capital market and achieving development at the level of the EU average. Indicators in achieving this goal of the strategy include the level of market capitalization, liquidity of capital markets, structure of project funding sources with companies, structure of investment portfolios of individual of individual investors and level of financial education,” said Kovachevski. The Prime Minister mentioned that the Government has allocated almost EUR 615 million to cushion the price shock caused by the pandemic and the military conflict in Ukraine and support citizens and companies through the Development Bank, adding that a new set of anti-crisis measures worth close to EUR 80 million is underway, which is targeted at the most vulnerable categories of citizens.