Following the exceptionally low inflow of foreign direct investments, PressingTV asked the Government for details about its ministers who are tasked with courting foreign companies to open manufacturing plants in Macedonia. There was no response and their websites are left empty, without a list of their work and accomplishments.
What was once considered an all star of often US born or educated Macedonians, who helped bring in about five dozen significant manufacturing companies under the previous VMRO-DPMNE led Government, is now reduced to three designated ministers. One of them is the infamous former Interior Minister and Hague war crimes suspect Ljube Boskovski. During his appointment, Boskovski acknowledged his lack of economic experience, but claimed that he has many contacts among foreign companies. The Government has not responded to the PressingTV calls to detail how many companies did he get to invest in Macedonia.
Another minister is Elvin Hasan, who is charged with bringing in Turkish investments. Again, there is no information about how efficient he was, a shart departure from the previous Government when individual ministers would compete among themselves in listing their work and successes.
The third designated FDI minister is Badul Dauti. Scarce online information about him reveals a visit to Albania, a breakfast with representatives of companies from Slovenia.. and that’s about it.
Zaev’s Government presented spectacular figures for 2018, or more than 600 million EUR in FDI, which came to a screeching half in 2019, when Central Bank data show an inflow of under 30 million EUR in the first three months of the year.
On top of the three ministers, who are seen as AWOL, Zaev also maintains 13 advisers who annually rake in 240.000 EUR in salaries. These include former minister Fatmir Besimi, Slovenian expert on the Balkans and the Middle East Zijad Bekirovik, Serbian advisers Zoran Basanovik and Aleksandar Obradovik, economy professor Vanco Uzunov, an adviser for the Caucassus named Silvio Avramovski, and the much ridiculed Aleksandar Ruzin. All of them are reduced to avoiding the press when asked how many blue collar jobs did they create, exactly.
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