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Tirana Times  (22 September 2019)

Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia are seeking the permanent removal of the barriers between them said the representatives of the states’ Chambers, who met in Skopje under a regional initiative whose main goal is the increase of regional cooperation among the three state’s businesses.

The goal of this first-time ‘Regional B2B Event,’ which took place in North Macedonia’s Skopje, was to enable the direct meeting between the regional businesses of Albania, North Macedonia and Kosovo in order to expand the markets in the regional level and beyond.

The networking event was hosted by the Economic Chamber of North-West Macedonia (ECNWM), Chamber of Doing Business in Kosovo and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Tirana, while its participants constituted the North Macedonia’s highest representatives, such as Head of Parliament Talat Xhaferi, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, Minister of Economy Kreshnik Bekteshi as well as representative of the office of USAID in North Macedonia Eric Janoesky.

The Chairman of ECNWM Nebi Hoxha said the increase of competitiveness and longevity of a company mainly depends on the networking the company has created and that through its established network the ECNWM has the perfect preconditions to lead the regionalization of North Macedonia’s enterprises.

“In this line, the focus must be to create the possibilities for the broadening of companies’ markets in the regional level.” Hoxha emphasized.

Meanwhile Nikolin Jaka, Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Tirana, said that despite the increase of commercial exchange between Albania and Kosovo, the optimal level has not been reached yet and many bureaucratic barriers still exist.

He added it is necessary “for all sides of the triangle to work” and that this specific case gravely lacks both road and railway infrastructure from N. Macedonia to Albania and Kosovo alike, around which revolves the problem of the movement of goods and people.

In addition to the B2B meetings between the businesses, the event was also characterized by the Economic Forum, which held the ‘Facilitation of commerce through the institutional cooperation between North Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania’ forum and ‘Opportunities of cooperation, investments and common access to regional markets and beyond’ forum, part of which were also the three states’ heads of customs.

Further on, the aims of this project are to improve the services offered by ECNWM towards businesses, access of companies to financial resources and increase of investments from leading companies to enhance the supply chain and development of labor.

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