Skopje, 12 May 2026 (MIA) - Focus on what you can control. We are a reasonably small country that can get paralyzed with what’s happening in the rest of the world, Mike Zafirovski, one of the founders of Macedonia2025, told politicians and businessmen at the Macedonia2025 Summit in Skopje, held under the theme “Beyond 2025: Accelerating Growth. Inspiring Leadership”.

According to Zafirovski, “a strong, independent, democratic Macedonia” would be great for the citizens, the region, Europe, and the world.

He said Europe is falling behind in terms of innovations, which could be one of the opportunities for the country.

“You have many regulations on privacy and it's a question of what is the right balance between innovation, moving forward and protecting the way of living. I'm not advocating what can or should happen, but the investments will be significant, there'll be winners and losers just like any other transformation in industry. And if Macedonia is wise, they'll be able to attract the right investments, right people to invest, and also communicate with the citizens in a way and try to balance the fear-mongering of all the bad things that would happen out of the investments or what artificial intelligence would be bringing,” Zafirovski said. 

According to Zafirovski, unemployment among young people is another serious issue, and a part of the challenge is how to use the opportunities to make all the improvements.

“And the more voice you have, Prime Minister Mickoski does have an increasing voice, you can articulate what can and should happen. So yes, there's concerns all over the world, there's also very committed citizens, myself included, who try to articulate privately and publicly what can and should happen. But again, for Macedonia, where we are economically, where we are in terms of quality of life, it's easy to use those reasons – I don't call them excuses – why we can't do better. And my comments this morning really were in many ways to encourage people to do the improvements they have to have as opposed to using the global issues to be paralyzed and not to really be moving forward to really help the citizens the places they can,” Zafirovski said in answer to media questions at the Summit.

Referring to commitments made in Chicago two years ago, Zafirovski recalled that one of them is to do everything possible to eliminate corruption.

“Corruption is a scourge in many, many countries. Unfortunately, we're not an exception from that. Some good progress is being made there but keep repeating: a fair country where people have trust remains to be a challenge number one. Good progress has been made. I think digitization and other efforts can really help us get forward,” Zafirovski said

Zafirovski also spoke about higher economic growth, efficient and transparent Government, as well as greater lobbying for the country’s EU accession. 

“Second: growth. 3.5 percent last year, was much higher than any country in the region. I still think we should be aiming for even higher. We're starting from a relatively low base. The potential is very significant. So, keep harping on the view from a growth perspective, from businesses being stronger, smart regulation, and more export-oriented products. And the third one, to have an effective and transparent government and a real commitment to accession into EU. I realize it takes two to get to the agreement, but again we've made a commitment to increase lobbying efforts to make sure that we're heard correctly. There's respect for the country, respect for the citizens, our name and our history, but nevertheless extra efforts are needed to enter into EU,” Zafirovski stressed.

Photo: Government