Despotovski from TIRZ: Large investments "heavy" over 400 million euros are coming - 5.000 new jobs

Jovan Despotovski / Photo: Free Press Archive

The director of the Directorate of TIRZ, Jovan Despotovski, boasted today that cin the first six months of the year, the volume of investments is around 240 million euros, just under 3 new jobs were created, and 000 million euros in total exports were realized, 2,2 million euros in income for the state from personal tax, 18 million euros from contributions and 91 million euros from VAT.

By the end of the year, he said that "heavy" investments of over 400 million euros are expected in TIRZ, which will create over 5 jobs.

Despotovski also emphasized that the talks on two new investments are in the final stage, for which he expects details to be announced by the end of the summer, and at the beginning of next week a delegation from the American-Taiwanese company, whose representatives have already had preparatory talks, will arrive.

- The competition is quite serious. It is a big investment, I mentioned somewhere over 250 million euros, so we will work until the end of the year, because the announcements from the company are that by the end of this year there will be a final decision on whether the region will be chosen first in relation to China, and if the region is chosen, will it be North Macedonia, Serbia or Croatia, emphasized the director, answering journalist's questions.

According to him, last year the average salary in the zones exceeded the national average for the first time.

-Are the salaries at a satisfactory level? My view is that they are not. I want and expect and we will work on it to grow even more dynamically. It is good that in Europe there are companies that are ready to pay 30 percent higher salary than the average, we are talking about an initial position in a workplace with a secondary education, so I think that we have an opportunity with a smart approach and with further development not only at existing companies to encourage additional salary growth, but also to bring companies to the zones that actually have the opportunity, due to the activity they perform, to pay really larger amounts, Despotovski pointed out.

When asked if there is enough labor for the factories in the zones, he answered in the affirmative, expressing confidence that in the short or medium term it will still be possible to meet the needs of the companies.

- There is still some, although I think we are not very far from the moment when we will face a real shortage. Now we are talking about several large investments that we are planning for the end of this year, the weight is somewhere over 400 million euros and which will definitely hire over 5 jobs. This means that even with the existing ones that still have jobs that need to be filled, real pressure will be put on the labor market. I believe that we still have reserves, that there is a good part of young people who may not yet fully perceive the opportunities offered by companies in the zones, so we will try to bring those opportunities as close as possible to them, said the director. 

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