Officials who are in the energy sector will be more likely to be held accountable because they steal in conditions when people pay 4 to 5 times the higher price of electricity, pointed out Aleksandar Nikoloski, deputy and vice-president of VMRO-DPMNE.

Nikoloski added that the heating issue is a very serious issue that only proves the government’s inability to deal with the energy crisis.

The heating issue is a serious issue, and it has several aspects. First, the fact that 19 days before the start of the heating season we do not know whether there will be heating in Skopje, speaks volumes about the kind of incompetent bandits running the country. Because 20 days before the beginning of the heating season, they still haven’t provided gas, nor do they have any idea where they will provide it. Second, heating does not only affect Skopje but affects all of Macedonia. Most of the institutions are located in Skopje because many people from the interior come. There are also citizens who come to the Clinical Center for health reasons. Or citizens from the interior come to get some documents from the ministry or the government. The third reason why heating affects the rest of the country is because if there is no heating in Skopje, naturally people will have to switch to electricity because most of the buildings do not have the infrastructure for another type of heating. And in that case, the price of electricity will increase enormously, but the network will also fall and people who live outside of Skopje will not be able to heat themselves, explained Nikoloski.

The vice president of VMRO-DPMNE pointed out that Macedonia has been in a serious economic crisis for several months now because the companies are paying 500% higher electricity prices. For example, if a company paid 10,000 euros per month for electricity until a few months ago, now they pay 50,000 euros for electricity. The biggest stupidity of the Government is that it divided the subjects into households, small industrial facilities, and large industrial facilities. And the Government left the large industrial facilities to buy electricity from the stock market, which is 5 times higher than it was before.

One of the main drivers of the economy in Macedonia is foreign investments and most of the people who work in Macedonia work in foreign investments, which bring the most of the GDP. In addition, the public knows that with the change of power and the arrival of the Government of SDSM and DUI and then Zoran Zaev as Prime Minister, the practice of bringing in foreign investors was stopped, and in these 5, here is the sixth year of the rule of SDSM and DUI in Macedonia, exactly two have entered new foreign investors, who most likely came to the country due to some inertia. And all the other foreign investors who were thinking about the region went to Serbia and we see what results Serbia is achieving in that part. So that foreign investments are not brought to Macedonia. While foreign investments are not brought to Macedonia, the Directorate for Technological Industrial Development Zones, it is the directorate that manages the zones, the free zones where companies come and spend enormous money to arrange the zones. So the directorate which does not bring foreign investments and does not allow the opening of factories that would open new jobs and increase the GDP, spends money on zoning. That is, they spend money on arranging empty zones, stressed Nikoloski.

He said that it can be seen that the Directorate for Technological Industrial Development Zones is very active in tenders every month, there is not a month that they do not give a tender to someone, but investments do not come.

I will say four, for example, the company “Zikol” was given two and a half million euros for arranging a technological industrial development zone in which there are no new foreign investments. The company “Zobek” was given 500,000 for arranging a technological industrial development zone in which there are no new foreign investments. The company “Stenton” was recently given two and a half million euros for arranging the arrangement of a technological industrial development zone and a customs terminal in a zone in which there are no new foreign investments. And lastly, the company “MGI Invest” was given four million euros for arranging a zone in which there are no investments, explained the vice-president.

Nikoloski indicated that a whole list can be taken out where the Directorate for Technological Industrial Development Zones where huge tenders and money spent for the work of the Directorate as well as for the “arrangement” of the zones in conditions where no foreign investor comes, can be seen. And this shows that the authorities are not interested in attracting foreign investments, but are interested in stealing.

This is an example of how the citizens’ money is spent and why there is no cheaper electricity and why the heating problem in Skopje is not solved. Because he spends his energy, his time on things like this, to make criminal deals. And what is also very significant in most of the tenders of the Directorate for Technological Industrial Development Zones there is only imagine one bidder. It is very strange that only one company calls after another, and no one else is interested, but then, for example, that company does not apply for the next tender, but someone else gets interested in applying. What it indicates, I can’t claim, but I say it indicates that pressure is being put on other companies not to participate in tenders, the vice president clarified.