This year we need a vision for the progress of our homeland, something that Macedonia2025 summits usually offers. Success of the Macedonian economy amid these unpredictable times will depend not only from the outside factors that we cannot affect but also on the commitment to domestic reforms, said President Stevo Pendarovski in the closing remarks at the Macedonia2025 Summit that took place in Skopje on May 18-19, informs MIA.
“When people stop believing they can change something, they simply make peace with destiny. Crises are not the biggest threat but the attitude towards their management. The dilemma is whether we seek for solutions or let events take their course,” said President Pendarovski.
He said resilience to crises is not only material but also mental. “If we want to replace collective helplessness with collective hope, we will have to reach for the key resource – will. Since its establishment, ‘Macedonia2025’ has managed to support the Macedonian business industry in overcoming several national and global crises, inspire new generations of business leaders, attract numerous foreign investors and keep the hope that we can change reality regardless of the context,” said Pendarovski.
Such conviction, he added, led the President into initiating development framework “MKD 2030” as a common platform for a long-term vision on the country’s development and future.
“The goal was to build a pan-partisan national consensus on the priorities that are required for accelerated growth and better life for citizens. We launched the process in much better circumstances than the current ones, at the time before the pandemic and when our NATO integration was being completed, while the European perspective seemed much closer,” said Pendarovski.
Three years later, said the President, the world is a more dramatic place.
“The pandemic caused a global recession, energy crisis and price shocks at global markets. In 2024, the global economy will be at least 2.3 percent lower than during the pre-pandemic times. The Russian invasion in Ukraine has also produced an energy and food crisis. In parallel, we are facing with blockades to our European integration and youth emigration,” noted Pendarovski.
According to him, it is an enormous challenge to formulate the strategic development framework in unpredictable circumstances while adding “there is always something good in every bad”.
“Therefore, I believe it is good that ‘MKD 2030’ is drafted at this time, because we are calibrating it by considering the worst scenarios and the most pessimistic projections,” said Pendarovski and added that as much as a vision is based on reality, the bigger the chance it can change reality.
He expects Macedonia2025, together with state institutions and the civil society, academia and the business community to be vital elements in this large national endeavor of creating a collective hope for a better tomorrow.
“Making peace with destiny is not an option. Our better future depends only from the national consensus on these issues and its observance,” underlined President Pendarovski.
