There can be no lasting peace and cooperation without sustained and rapid development, without the participation of all countries and social groups in the development, President Gjorge Ivanov stressed in his address at the Session of the Presidents “Hunger, Poverty and Unemployment”, held today in Izmir, as part of the 15. Eurasian Economic Summit.

President Ivanov underlined that we need a new era of regional cooperation in Southeast Europe and in Eurasia, with specific projects in the sphere of economy, with infrastructure and energy connectivity. The economy depends on infrastructure connectivity, notably road, rail and air traffic, as President Ivanov said, adding that for a long time, along with his colleagues from the region, they put all their efforts to connect the Adriatic-Ionian Highway with Corridors 8 and 10, a big project with huge benefits for the whole region.

Without energy security, noone in the world today can make projections on the future. Therefore, I wish the Republic of Macedonia and the other countries in the region are energy connected. I am particularly pleased that we are in an advanced stage of negotiations for connecting Macedonia to the pipeline “South Stream”. But we should not rely solely on this, the Macedonian President noted.

On our path towards the European and Euro-Atlantic integrations, our desire is not to acquire a membership card only. We want substantive integration of European criteria and standards in our countries and societies throughout our region. We want to establish Europe in our region. To establish it through social stability, reforms, professional administration, efficient and independent judiciary, President Ivanov said.

Discussing about the challenges faced by the humanity in the second decade of the Millennium, the President said that climate change, deteriorating conditions in the environment, restricted energy, water, mineral resources have become a priority of the global political agenda. In that regard, he announced that in June next year he will be hosting the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the South-East Europe countries.

President Ivanov expects to raise regional awareness and responsibility for problems and challenges that recognize no borders, the consequences of which are our common concern. Consequences which are inextricably related with issues such as hunger, poverty and unemployment, being a chronic pain of humanity.

The Macedonian President talked about the achievements in reducing the unequal development, something that is long present on the priority list of the United Nations system. Despite the increased access of people to pure potable water, decrease of mortality of children under 5 years of age and increase of the percentage of children in primary education, the results, according to President Ivanov, are not sufficient and do not meet the real needs of humanity. In that context, he mentioned the fact that far more money is spent in the world on armaments and investment in defense than on aid, development and investment in developing countries.

President Ivanov presented his vision on the need of operationalization on a regional level of the global strategy and efforts of the United Nations and of the other global political factors, by institutional linkage of the policies of the countries in the regions and by establishing regional mechanisms and institutions for equitable development. We must regionalize and tailor the United Nations Strategy, President Ivanov said, and in the regions, we have to cooperate in joint development policy, mutual opening and connecting, in sustainable development strategy.

The meeting in Izmir was attended by the Macedonian Minister of Environment and Physical Planning, Abdilakim Ademi and the Minister without Portfolio, Hadi Nezir. It was attended by more than 250 representatives from 40 countries, including the Presidents of Montenegro, Albania, the Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina, former presidents of Bulgaria, Romania, Kosovo.

The purpose of the meeting is to offer joint solutions to the Balkan countries, Europe, Asia and Africa to provide greater stability and development, and to attract greater attention to the problems of hunger, poverty and unemployment in order to minimize them. Hunger and poverty are not a problem only of people and countries facing them, but of rich and powerful, who are supposed to eradicate such situations, assessed the participants at the meeting. The fifteenth edition of the Eurasian Economic Forum is organized by the Marmara Foundation in cooperation with the Chamber of Commerce of Izmir.