Six billion euros of the agreement with the United Kingdom will be available under the best market conditions, the prime minister announced

Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said today that the Strategic Partnership Agreement with the United Kingdom will be the basis of an investment cycle that will have a total framework of five billion pounds or six billion euros, and the conditions under which these funds will be available are the best one can have on the market.

– I know them about because it has already been negotiated for months and I can say that they are the best it can have on the market, but it is not yet finished, it is not finally even though we are close to a final solution. Very almost today and it will be announced, our benchmark is Eurolibor, and two fixed parameters – a grace period and a long repayment period – Mickoski told a journalist question.

He emphasized that the agreement on strategic partnership with the United Kingdom will positively affect the country’s ratings regarding the conditions for doing business.

-To you have a strategic partnership with the OK means some political security plus and that should have a positive impact on both rating agencies and all those who assess the conditions for doing business here. The very fact that in the first quarter of this year we have increased the credits, ie lending to both the economy and the citizens of 13 percent, which is six times more than the same period in Europe and two and a half times more for the same period last year here, it shows that people’s hope is coming back and that they are here and that they want to invest in our business. So it is a compliment to us – the Prime Minister explained.

Asked by a journalist about public and government debt, injection of these funds in the economy, he said he expects GDP to grow faster than public debt, ie public debt reduction, as it is about capital investments, not borrowing money for social transfers.

-In construction, the money is spinning three times, so I do not expect any implications in those parameters even more because the first invoice should arrive in 2027. We will have a grace period when we can grow, grow GDP. So, in general, it is a historic moment for our economy and business – says Mickoski.

He announced transparency regarding the projects that will be delivered with this strategic partnership and sitting on the table with the business community.

-Projects that will be delivered and part of this strategic partnership, and when you add current projects to the municipalities, then we really need to see what our absorption capacity is, as the agreement provides for a minimum of 70 percent to be a local component. So this will be a great support for the Macedonian economy and here we have to work with the business community. We absolutely do not intend to privatize this project because we cannot and want to do it – says Prime Minister Mickoski.

Part of the money will be for investment in infrastructure, construction of modern cargo and fast passenger rail from Tabanovce to Gevgelija, investments in health and new hospitals, completing the project at the Clinical Hospital in Stip, together with the building of the new Faculty of Medicine, a dormitory, Contracts for these investments will be signed in the next days – said Mickoski.