Skopje, 2 September 2022 (MIA) – The cooperation of North Macedonia, Serbia and Albania as part the Open Balkan Initiative has opened a road to mutual management of the challenges to provide food and electricity for the citizens, when all countries in the world are trying to mitigate the consequences from the war in Ukraine and the pandemic, said Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski at the Open Balkan Summit in Belgrade. The Prime Minister, alongside the leaders of the region and the members of the crisis group for food and electricity, Minister of Economy Kreshnik Bekteshi, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy Ljupcho Nikolovski, directors Slavica Kutirov of the Customs Administration and Nikola Babovski of the Food and Veterinary Agency, as well as their colleagues from the region, discussed the governments’ priorities amid the energy crisis, which is to secure food and electricity. The discussions at the meeting, the government press service said, focused on the importance of the three countries helping each other in the event of a food supply interruption, as a result of the global crisis, when any of the countries would eventually face shortage in the supply of basic agricultural and food products to the domestic market. The participants also discussed facilitation of export and import procedures, as well as mutual supply of raw materials for basic food products. The leaders of the Open Balkan Initiative underlined that in these times of crisis, none of the countries will be left to fend for themselves, pointing out that a small donation for one country is the solution of a big problem for another. They indicated that they will strive for maximum utilization and creation of new capacities for renewable energy choices. At the meeting, Prime Minister Kovachevski gave his support for the planned cooperation aimed at encouraging and supporting the investments of the states, especially in the sphere of building capacities for the use of renewable energy sources, green energy production, as well as connecting the gas and electricity systems. At the meeting, the working groups emphasized that the agreements signed at the Summit "represent our commitment to make food available for the people, and the countries must help each other out first and foremost." The members of the working group from the country in the field of energy emphasized that the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia, through the Ministry of Economy and other relevant ministries, is also working on putting into operation all energy potentials in our country, in the efforts to deal with the energy situation. dk/ba/