Skopje, 2 September 2022 (MIA) - It is abundantly clear today that North Macedonia, Albania and Serbia made the right step with the Open Balkan initiative in crucial times. We became closer to improve regional cooperation on the path to the EU. With concrete steps, we're committed to facilitating free movement of people, goods, trade and services and we've been building good neighborly relations, Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski said Friday opening the Open Balkan Leaders' Summit in Belgrade. This cooperation, today, he said, paves the way toward joining forces to tackle challenges in providing food and energy while all countries in the world are addressing the challenges from the Ukraine war and the pandemic. "Signing the agreements today, we will commit to providing food for our citizens, to helping each other whenever necessary. It's a good thing that at the summit, we're also agreeing ways for energy cooperation. There are potentials for development in rehabilitating interconnector networks so as to boost opportunities for energy exchange and cooperation in terms of constructing photovoltaic power stations," Kovachevski said adding that activities should intensify in the coming period to establish gas interconnector with Serbia. At the summit, the PM added, an agreement on operational plan for disaster management will be signed, allowing procedures to be facilitated and time to be shortened for when assistance is most needed. According to Kovachevski, the memorandum of understanding and cooperation in film industry between the three countries will stimulate investments in the industry. "Open Balkan has proven as being necessary. We're and we will be in intensive regional cooperation," said PM Kovachevski in his address. He also referred to the borders between the three countries. "We're probably the only region in the world that has borders between us. I think that it should be our goal to completely lift not only administrative barriers but also to lift the barriers in general so as to establish a region that communicates 100% on all grounds," stressed Kovachevski.