December19^th, 2016 - today USAID launched its Project - Partnership for Better Business Regulation to present the main goals, how they will be achieved, and who are the project implementers. The Project is funded by the U.S Government and aims to support economic growth by alleviating stress on the SMEs imposed by the frequent change s in legal regulations.

In his remarks, Mr. James Stein – Mission director at USAID Macedonia noted “For the past 25 years, USAID has supported growth of the Macedonian economy. Our main focus has been improving the competitiveness of small - and medium - sized enterprises, helping them grow and create new jobs, through both direct assistance to the enterprises, and indirectly by working with the government to improve the policies influencing the business enabling environment, making that environment more conducive to private sector growth.” “Through the USAID Partnership for Better Business Regulations, we hope to further contribute to economic growth in Macedonia by decreasing the undue pressure placed on small and medium enterprises due to changing legislation and regulations.”The partnership between EPICENTAR and the three business chambers who are part of the project, will allow for knowledge sharing among stakeholders and is expected to result in the development of many innovative and targeted solutions for improvement of legal compliance by businesses. Through this project, USAID will invest significant resources to improve the capacity of the business chambers and SMEs.”

Additionally, through this project, efforts will be made for establishing constructive public-private dialogue. All stakeholders will be included in the establishment of an effective system for decision-making and improved knowledge sharing.

Lead implementator of the Project is EPI CENTAR Internationaland responsible for coordination of the proposed activities. Key implementing partners in the project include The Economic Chamber of Macedonia; ICT Chamber of Commerce - MASIT; and The Economic Chamber of North-West Macedonia. These chambers have an excellent track record in representing the interests of the SMEs, and working to improve the business environment in the country.

The Project will be mainly focused but not limited to four large sectors: Agriculture, Textile, ICT and Construction. These four sectors are the engineof the Macedonian economy and are active in all geographic regions in the country. The involvement of these sectors will serve as an model for the further development of measure related to  regulation compliance and public private dialogue to be implemented in other business sectors.The American people, through USAID, will invest $1.902.511 in the next 4 years for project activities.

NOTE TO EDITORS:

The American people, through USAID, have invested more than $583 million in Macedonia since 1993. USAID isworkingwiththepeopleofMacedoniatocreatejobs, strengthendemocraticinstitutionsandpractices, enhanceintegratededucation, andpreparestudentsfortheworkforce. These initiatives improve the quality of life for Macedonia’s citizens and support its progress. USAID provides economic and humanitarian assistance in more than 100 countries. For more information please visit http://www.usaid.gov/where-we-work/europe-and-eurasia/macedonia  and USAID FB page http://www.facebook.com/USAIDMacedonia.”