English
In an interview in Washington, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski reiterated his determination to develop the data center industy in Macedonia, and said that he is in talks with six companies, including Rumble, owned by ethnic Macedonian Chris Pavlovski.
This is an irreversible process. Humanity will move in that direction. Anyone who has doubts here does not have their own country’s best interests at heart. The question is how to channel this process and extract the maximum from it. You mentioned Chris Pavlovski and Rumble — they have now made an acquisition, bought a company in Germany, and are now a company worth around $5 billion. That is a serious group that is developing seriously. Yes, we are talking with him. Among other things, we are talking with five other companies as well. Everyone who does not understand high technology talks about noise and water cooling. We now have both air cooling and freon cooling, so I regret that there are still political forces and elements here who are trying to take us back to the 19th or early 20th century, thinking that in that way, through emotion, they will attract attention. But I think they are political losers and will be defeated, because Macedonian citizens want to see the country move forward, said the Prime Minister, who committed that all such facilities that get built will follow high environmental standards in reducing water consumption.
Broadly in the economy, Mickoski sadi that this type of digitalization is one of the three pillars of economic development he wants to pursue.
This government has a clear plan that can be explained on one page. What is the main goal of this government? Economic development based on three pillars: infrastructure — road and rail; energy infrastructure, generation capacity, and transmission systems; and third, high technology, including data centers, as well as diversification of the processing industry, because most of our foreign investors who came between 2008 and 2012 are in the automotive industry. Things there are changing, and we are working to diversify that portfolio. This is practically the strategy of this government, and everything we do is in that direction — how to accelerate economic development. Because we will no longer be able to service labor-intensive industry in the future; we have less and less labor. We need high-tech industry with high added value, with which we will increase GDP and raise citizens’ living standards. This process will not happen in one term. This is a process that should last two, three, four terms. I am not saying this government will last that long, nor am I claiming that I should remain prime minister that long. But in essence this should be a national strategy for how the country should develop. This process is irreversible. Humanity is moving forward, and in fact today, without artificial intelligence and some data centers that already operate somewhere, we cannot even make a mobile phone call, Mickoski added.