SKOPJE, April 20 (Xinhua) -- A two-year project on the enhancement of cooperation between domestic companies and foreign direct investments (FDIs) was launched here on Friday.
The project, whose focus is to raise the competitiveness of domestic companies and turn them into local suppliers of foreign companies, will be implemented by the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Skopje, the Foreign Investors' Council, the Macedonian Economic Chamber and Vienna University of Technology's Institute of Management Science.
According to project leader Robert Minovski, due to the new production methods, the project will contribute to the enhancement of the companies' operations, noting that the lack of cooperation is owed to the low quality, inappropriate technology, and price.
In his speech, Macedonian vice premier for economic affairs Koco Angjusev underlined that the level of cooperation between domestic companies and foreign companies operation in technological-industrial development zones is very low.
According to Angjusev, the majority of foreign companies in Macedonia earmark only 1 percent of the total costs for procurement of commodities and services from Macedonian suppliers.
Moreover, he said that "foreign companies will get one percent refund of funds spent for procurement purposes if they make 15 percent of their procurement from domestic companies".
Stefan Peter, president of the Foreign Investors Council, pushed Macedonian companies to look for new business cooperation, communicate with potential buyers and promote their companies and products.
"There is no other way to the procurement chain of FDI's other than work hard," said Peter.
