Hristijan Mickoski, leader of VMRO-DPMNE, held Saturday a press conference at which announced a package of measures for citizens and businesses and announced higher average salaries by 25%, pensions by 20%, investments, lower taxes.

For the past 2 year I have been working and have devoted most of my time to meetings and communication with citizens and the economy. In the last year, we have been working intensively and on a program and measures that we will commit to bringing about the renewal necessary for our society. Strategic collaborators, university professors, experts from different fields, committees in VMRO-DPMNE contributed to the development of our measures and projects, and the key segment was the opinion and needs of the citizens and the economy, Mickoski said.

Mickoski emphasized that people are fed up with politics of division, empty accusations, politicians with false promises, and hence the need for measures and projects and a lot of work.

That is why we are launching a series of press conferences where we will promote measures and solutions that will be part of the coming renewal that will provide more for everyone. These are measures and projects we are committed to and which should to bring more money, more funds, more hope, more smiles. More for retirees, more for workers, more for the economy and business, more for the citizens and the standard, more for Macedonia. We commit ourselves to a renewal that will increase the average wage in the state by at least 25% in one term. Wages will rise by at least 25% in the next 4 years. That will mean more money for workers or an average of 6,500 MKD more than the salary that will be paid on average in the state in December 2019. We will work hard for a strong economic standard for every single worker. We commit ourselves to a renewal that will allow the average pension payment to increase by at least 20% in a single term or that will mean more than 3,000 denars more for every single retiree, Mickoski announced.

The leader of VMRO-DPMNE announced unemployment rate below 10%.

In terms of unemployment, there will be no increase here. Instead we will drastically reduce it. We commit ourselves to a renewal that will bring unemployment below 10%. More jobs, more happy people, more work for young people, more work for capable people, more work for professionals. Under 10 percent unemployment for lower poverty and problem solving. We commit ourselves to renewal that will bring more work for young people, 0% personal income tax for employment of young people up to 29 years of age. This will mean a personal income tax exemption for young people up to 29 years of age with an annual net income of up to 6.5 thousand euros. Young people to have a chance to build the future here. In addition, by building a modern innovation infrastructure that involves opening innovation centers, business incubators and accelerators, science and technology parks we will provide young and creative people full support in realizing their business ideas. We are strongly convinced that Macedonia has young talented people who have strong entrepreneurial and innovative ideas and therefore we will work to create the most favorable conditions for exploiting their potential, Mickoski pointed out.

Mickoski also announced that there would be more money for the economy, business and citizens.

Taxes will decrease, which means more money for the economy and citizens. We will completely abandon the concept of progressive tax and introduce a flat tax of up to 8%. We will start from 10%, of which 1% will be reduced in the first 100 days, which means flat tax from 10% to 9%, and within two years we will reach 8% for an additional 1%. We commit ourselves to a renewal that will bring a new model of re-industrialization. This means a new economic model based on modern re-industrialization and increasing export competitiveness of the Macedonian economy. For this purpose we plan to: offer specific measures to support domestic companies in their technological and organizational advancement; build a network of export promoters for domestic export companies and promoters to attract foreign direct investment; reform the Macedonian Bank for Development Promotion into Macedonian Export Development Bank which will provide favorable loans and export support to domestic companies and subsidized development interest; redefine the FDI program in order to attract companies with the greatest potential benefit to the Macedonian economy, Mickoski said.

Mickoski also said that they commit themselves to a renewal that will bring 4 billion euros of domestic and foreign investment in one term, and pledged to put Macedonia on Doing Business top 10 list, pointing out that unfortunately today the country is ranked 17th.