The President of the Republic of Macedonia Dr. Gjorge Ivanov had a meeting today with Macedonian emigrants in Bern within the two-day official visit to the Swiss Confederation.
President Ivanov urged Macedonian emigrants to invest in Macedonia by establishing Macedonian-Swiss joint ventures and sent them a message that in their fatherland efforts are being made to create favourable business environment.
The President presented all the reforms that were implemented to improve the business climate that helped to rank the country as the third greatest reformer in the world by the World Bank and reiterated that the doors of Macedonia are always open to expatriates who, as he said, should take the advantages offered in the free economic zones.
- You facilitate and contribute the excellent bilateral relations between Macedonia and Switzerland to be further strengthened. Switzerland is a country we have no open issues with which has helped us many times, said President Ivanov, emphasizing that it is necessary to increase the economic cooperation between the two countries.
The emigrants were interested in the manner of Diaspora voting and urged that the capacity of the Agency for Emigration should be strengthened. According to them, only three seats provided for Diaspora MPs in the Parliament are not enough. They were interested in the political divisions in Macedonia, and President Ivanov answered that the country is in process of studying democracy.
- Parties are to divide people and President is to unite people. I do everything to achieve this, but unfortunately we are too much politically divided, said Ivanov, adding that people will not be interested in politics when economy is improved.
According to 2005 data, there are about 65,000 Macedonian emigrants in Switzerland, or about 0.8 % of the total 7.6 million Swiss inhabitants, thus they represent about one percent of the total Swiss population.