The second Skopje Economic Finance Forum (SEFF 2022) marked the significance of joint effort in contributing and achieving the goals of the economic recovery and a stable, transparent and coherent business climate in our country. It was a great honor listening to the overview of the global economic situation and future prognosis by Mr. Paul Krugman, Prominent Professor of Economics at City University of New York and a Recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics who discussed the inflation, recession, mid-term economic challenges and changes in globalization. The attendance of the Nobel laureate Paul Krugman during the SEFF Second Annual Conference was supported by our distinguished company members ALKALOID AD Skopje, EVN, HALKBANK AD Skopje and Roche Macedonia, while the conference was organized by the Ministry of Finance.
The focus of this year’s has been on “Sustaining Growth in Times of Uncertainty and Beyond”, encompassing actual topic such as macroeconomic challenges in turbulent times, resistance, competitiveness and regional cooperation, energy, green transition and infrastructure and post-crisis -drivers for sustainable growth.
Susan Danger, CEO of AmCham Europe, Dragan Davitkov, President of BoD of AmCham North Macedonia, Petar Ivanov, Executive Director of AmCham Bulgaria, Elias Spirtounias, Executive Director, AmCham Greece, Ivan Miletic, First VP of AmCham Serbia explained their views and emphasized the importance of different initiatives that will facilitate the movement of labor, goods, services and capital, connecting markets and companies during the first panel – Seizing Opportunities from Regional Cooperation and Euro-Atlantic Perspectives. Speakers underlined the importance of establishing regulation and consistent policies for foreign direct investments from which the whole region will benefit, drawing it into attention the importance of regional cooperation towards improvement of competitiveness of the region.
Throughout two-days discussion on challenging topics, representatives from the member companies of AmCham North Macedonia – Zivko Mukaetov, CEO of Alkaloid, Stefan Peter, CEO of EVN, Metodija Mircevski, CEO of A1, Nikola Ljushev, CEO of Makedonski Telekom, Ivan Steriev, CEO of MSE, Bilal Sucubasi, CEO of Halk Bank, Aleksandra Ivanovska, Country Manager of Roche and Ivan Kostic, General Director of PMITK in their views obtained the necessity of the digitalization that will fasten and support the idea of creating a larger volume of production, consumers, and increased volume of placement. Upon their views, member companies of AmCham pointed the inevitability of well-established regulation and consistent policies for foreign direct investments from which the whole region will benefit, as well as greater use of technology in finance, development of infrastructure and services that are green, resilient, and might foster sustainable development.
In the spirit of encouraging the synergy of ideas and initiatives of policy makers, international development partners, civil society, academia, business sector and other experts and stakeholders aimed to improve the political dialogue on economic and financial issues with national and regional scope. SEFF provided a great opportunity for building alliances and strengthening cooperation of the economies of the Western Balkans region by improving links and cooperation on different infrastructure projects, especially in the field of energy and ICT, believing that by creating sustainable supply chains, WB countries can become more resilient and competitive in times of crisis.
