Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said that he expects the distribution of the 250 million EUR lent from Hungary to go ahead in good order. Mickoski is due to meet representatives of the commercial banks on Sunday, after their demands to charge significant interest on the loans they would extend to businesses, which threatens to make the entire program unfeasible.

It is very important that the meeting on Sunday ends successfully, and we can begin using the money from the Hungarian loan, Mickoski said.

The Prime Minister welcomed the signing of an agreement today between the state owned ELEM energy company and the SOCAR company from Azerbaijan. This deal is expected to provide stable and affordable gas supplies to Macedonia, at a time when the Government is hoping to initiate development of new gas plant. Mickoski sees these new plants as the main weapon against the high levels of air pollution, as well as an important tool to grow the economy.