Page 28 - Ekonomija i Biznis_May 2016.indd

РSOУБCРIEИTКYА
requisites, their full exploitation also ing the role of foreign investments
requires continuous investments by
the companies, for the development
of the human capital and transfer of
new modern technologies for the pro-
duction of safe high quality products,
as well as an adjustment of the needs
of the European consumers and an
ability to withstand the open compe-
tition with the other companies in the
world which have an agreement on
free trade with the European Union.
Just as a comparison, the investments
in education in EU-28 in the past five
years are at a level of 5% to 5.5%, and
in Macedonia they are approximately
4% of the GDP. Hence, we have a rela-
tively low investment compared to
the EU and this becomes more obvi-
ous when one considers that our GDP
per capita is only 35% of the EU av-
erage. Investments in science and in
innovations, that is, in research and
development should also be increased
in order to increase the competitive
ability in the national economy. Just
to compare, in EU-28 the investments
in research and development are ap-
proximately 2% of the GDP and they
are projected to reach 3% by 2020,
while these investments in Macedo-
nia are only 0.2% of the GDP. Such in-
vestments are not an issue of choice,
rather an issue of survival, including
the domestic market due to the in-
creased competitive pressure of the
European companies and the prod-
ucts on the Macedonian market.
Foreign direct investments
and competitiveness of
the economy
The high level of economic connec-
tion with the EU is also evident from
the level of foreign direct invest-
ments of the EU member states. Ac-
cording to the data of the NBRM, in
2014 the investments of the EU mem-
ber states participated with 70.1% in
the total foreign direct investments
or in financial value of 194 million
Euros (of 278 million Euros in total).
This is useful information consider-
28 May 2016
in the creation of new job positions,
the cooperation with the local com-
panies, as well as improvement of the
trade balance through the import and
the introduction of know-how, which
additionally may imply improvement
of productivity and competitiveness
of the economy.
The foreign direct investments en-
courage the competitiveness in this
country, they increase the invest-
ments, they support the integration
in the global economy. Key factors
for the growth of productivity in-
clude the investments in research
and development, the technical skills
and the management skills. Multina-
tional companies make a transfer of
knowledge to their local suppliers,
wherewith they encourage their pro-
ductivity as well. An example that is
worth mentioning is the high level
of foreign direct investments in Ire-
land, as well as the central European
and Baltic countries that contributed
for the acceleration of the economic
growth, therefor they contributed for
narrowing of the gap in productivity
and the income with the old EU mem-
ber states.
European development funds
and structural reforms
In such a constellation of economic
circumstances, the state institutions
and economic operators do not have
other option but to follow the new
trends of deepening the only Euro-
pean market. This is imposed by the
structure of our economy and our
deep trade relations with the market
of the European Union. The complexi-
ty of the process, its dynamics and im-
portance for fast reactions and adop-
tion of valid decisions assumes daily,
structural and honest cooperation
between state institutions as creators
of the conditions for the business and
the economic operators as holders of
our economy and competitiveness,
and as creators of our gross domestic
product. In this direction, our compa-