Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs FatmirBytyqi and Director of the Fund for Innovation and Technological Development (FITR) KostaPetrov recently promoted the results of projects that the government will finance with 5.7 million euros of public money in order to allegedly encourage technological development of domestic companies and acceleration of the economic growth of the country. If that money really goes to the right companies and to support the best projects then they would not mind, on the contrary they would support those measures and policies of this Government. But, unfortunately, our knowledge does not say that. Funds are distributed for projects that have nothing to do with encouraging the technological development of domestic companies, nor with accelerating the economic growth of the country, said TrajkoSlaveski, member of the VMRO-DPMNE EC at today’s press conference.
Slaveski, professor at the Faculty of Economics in Skopje and former Minister of Finance, says that a significant part of the projects are completely problematic, which casts great doubt on how the selection is made about which companies and projects will be supported by the state.
“In fact, from the official reports of FITR we can see that thousands of euros are approved to support the so-called projects such as: procurement of X-ray for veterinary services, digital gynecologist, software for scheduling appointments for health services, human resources scanner and many other “projects” that are not related to improving the production and export capacities of domestic companies. Imagine, ladies and gentlemen, in conditions when the number of newly unemployed in one year in Macedonia increased by 60,000 people, they finance projects such as a human resources scanner, which would link the supply and demand of labor. Furthermore, in conditions when thousands of citizens face inability to receive basic health services due to lack of devices in public health, the Government and FITR with public money support PHI to purchase devices that will later charge health services to Macedonian citizens at very high prices,” pointed out Slaveski.
He pointed out that in conditions of pandemic when thousands of lives were endangered due to lack of quality health care and in a situation when we need to raise public health facilities in every way in order to prepare for a possible new wave of pandemic, the Government led by SDSM and DUI with public money supports the purchase of X-rays for veterinary services of a private veterinary institution.
All this shows that the interest of this Government is everything but improving the economic situation in the country, encouraging technological development and accelerating economic growth. Confirmation of this are the findings of the latest analysis of the renowned Vienna Institute of Economics, which indicate that the Republic of Macedonia has not made any economic improvements since the crisis and that the country’s capacity is insufficient to deal with it. Despite the praise of government officials, the numbers are relentless.
