Stimulation of local economic development, transfer of technologies and workforce skills, increase of the competitiveness of local companies and boosted export from the country are some of the effects anticipated from the new technological industrial development zone "Kicevo", whose construction was launched Wednesday in the Srbjani site.

A government economic team was in attendance at the ground-breaking ceremony, where Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said in his address that the Government's good economic policies and measures, the favourable business climate in the country and the presentation of Macedonia's investment opportunities had stirred strong interest with many foreign investors. "Some are already in the country, others are building plants while some are planning their investments," he added.

The PM underlined that technological industrial development zones were one of the segments that had largely contributed to the process of presenting and attracting foreign investors in the country.

"Similar zones have been built and are already functioning in the vicinity of Skopje and Stip. Others are planned to be built in Tetovo, Rankovce, Struga, Prilep, Gevgelija and here in Kicevo. They cover many business areas in Macedonia that are relatively close to larger cities and airports, harbours and highways. By constructing such zones, we are increasing the opportunities offered by Macedonia to foreign investors to a great extent," PM Gruevski said,

Vice PM Vladimir Pesevski said he expected the construction of the Kicevo zone to produce the same effect as those in Bunardzik.

"Over 300 million euros have been invested so far in construction of zones, where more than thousands of new jobs have been created. The goal is to enable balanced development in the state. The opening of this zone aims at overcoming the effects of the economic crisis in Europe," Pesevski noted.

The zone in Kicevo is the fifth out of eleven industrial development zones planned to be built within the Government's program for economic development and attraction of foreign direct investments.