Macedonian and Bulgarian businessmen will enhance the economic cooperation by realizing joint projects and by establishing partnership to open small and medium-sized enterprises. Administrative obstacles are a thing of the past, but the lack of infrastructural connection is still a problem that needs to be solved.

This was concluded at Wednesday's assembly of the Macedonian-Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce held under the motto "Business beyond Borders".

"The Government continuously implements projects aimed at improving the business climate. In the midst of the economic crisis, it adopted four packages of measures to assist local companies and in order to attract foreign investments, it is still establishing technological and development industrial zones offering a myriad of tax benefits," Minister of Transport and Communications Mile Janakieski said at the event.

He urged Bulgarian businessmen to invest in Macedonia because “it offers excellent conditions."

"Macedonia and Bulgaria's top priority at political and economic level is the common present and future in the European family as a benefit for the entire region. This will also contribute the businesses to be more secure," Janakueski noted.

The Bulgarian ambassador to Macedonia, Ivan Petkov said that foreign exchange between the countries was solid, adding that there was still a room for improvement.

"In 2012, foreign exchange was slightly over 550 million leva, which is a significant decrease compared to 2011, when it reached one billion. It was most probably due to the economic crisis," Petkov said.

His Macedonian counterpart Blagoj Handziski said that even in times of crisis, tourist exchange had experienced a growth. In the first three months of 2013, Bulgarian businessmen showed more interest in investing in Macedonia.

Businessmen have proved that they are always ahead of politicians. "We are not bothered by nationalism, we want to form an environment of business beyond borders," said the new chairman of the Macedonian-Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce, Zore Temelkovski.

The chamber, which was established two years ago, at today's meeting defined its priorities, institutional strengthening, international networking, promotion and marketing.