Mr. Petkov, business supports you, create a "Commission of the Future" and solve the problem

Branko Azeski

We businessmen do not need constitutional preambles or paragraphs to respect the Republic of Bulgaria and its citizens. We respect someone if they make a profit, pay taxes and are socially responsible

Mr. Kiril Petkov, Minister, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Bulgaria, at the very beginning, as a graduate of "Columbia" and "Harvard" and as a businessman, I would like to welcome your statements announcing a new approach to resolving disputes between our two states. This is a significant step forward because the previous approach has put my country in a humiliating position, and you will surely agree that no one needs such a humiliation. Is it not enough that Europeans laugh at us for the level of economic cooperation, which for 30 years is 4,5 to 6 percent of the total volume of Macedonian trade with the world, and for the uniform structure of trade, which can be counted on ten fingers : in the export of lead and concentrate ores, zinc and copper ores, tobacco and iron ore products, and in the import of oils, petroleum products, crude sunflower oil and special transactions and products which are not classified?

They laugh at us for the four hours we need to travel 150 kilometers between our two capitals by car and that we have not been able to connect by rail for 30 years. Not to mention the border crossings, which are an association of the 19th century. Is that a little? And now, instead of getting out of that shame, we should argue with historical commissions about something that our migrant young generations in the world are not interested in at all. Give a commission for the future in Skopje tomorrow and solve these questions! We in business beat and eliminate competition, but we do not humiliate it, because it can come back in another form and do the same to us.

Why am I addressing you and not our Prime Minister? We are practical people in business and we know who is who in the political "games". You are the Prime Minister of a member state of the European Union and NATO. A country that has its independence for 150 years, several times bigger than ours. The weight of your word and your projection to do something more is crucial. That is why the Republic of Bulgaria and you as its first minister are most responsible for that. If we were you, we would not be enslaved to protocol agendas today. We would ask what we would agree on today specifically in economic terms to encourage cooperation, to connect railways, to build highways, to open new border crossings, to modernize existing ones, to encourage businessmen and to facilitate trade. All of this has a much greater added value than repeating the phrases that have brought us to where we are.

The second reason why I am addressing you is the values ​​of the west we are moving towards. I know perfectly well that the polls you do on the issue of the start of negotiations with the European Union of my country are low in numbers. But Western values ​​speak of leadership in those moments when numbers are one thing and reality is quite another. The one who will do that and who will take the responsibility to go against the numbers, believing in another solution, will be remembered as a leader, and everyone else as a minister-president.

Now a little not about our history, but about the history of political promises related to the economy.

- In accordance with the Agreement on Economic Cooperation between the governments of the two countries, the first session of the Macedonian-Bulgarian Intergovernmental Commission for Economic Cooperation was held on March 7, 2019 and has not met since.

- Since 1999, we have signed an agreement for regular air traffic, which even after 22 years has not been implemented.

- Joint application for cross-border cooperation funds and your support in using European funds.

- Construction of a second interconnector Petrich-Strumica.

- Investment of 400 million euros for the construction and modernization of the railway by you and us.

- Absolute priority of Corridor 8 with us and you.

You will agree that very little or nothing has been done about all this.

Mr. Petkov, we all live under the same sky, but we do not have the same horizon. Only a small number of people have a wide horizon. You, as the 51st Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria from 1879 until today, have a historic chance to be the first to see the farthest horizon. We, as the oldest institution in my country, which this year celebrates 100 years and which represents companies on a voluntary basis, which generate 50,3 percent of total revenue and which have 47,6 percent net profit and 33,7 percent employees, We are at your disposal to help in that direction and to participate with all our capacity in the process that will enable in the next two years to raise the level of economic cooperation to one billion US dollars, and let the historians argue as much as they want because they have time, and our time is expensive and paid with high interest rates and various burdens, which still persist and which would be good to be the topic of some next meeting. I wish you a good stay and successful conversations and I apologize if anything from this address is understood differently than as a constructive suggestion.

(The author is the President of the Economic Chamber of Northern Macedonia)

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