Premier Nikola Gruevski presented Friday the awards for best business plan in 2012-2013 school year. The contest was organised for a seventh year in a row by the Education Development Bureau, the Ministry of Education and Science and the Center for the Development of New Businesses at Skopje's Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.

High school students from Strumica, Kumanovo, Gostivar and Skopje won top prizes.

Presenting the awards, PM Gruevski said that Macedonia "has an exceptional youth which gives hope that the generations of future leaders are born in Macedonia."

"Each and everyone of you is a winner for learning to compete with their thought, for learning that they can earn from their potential and creativity," Gruevski told the students.

He added that entrepreneurship in the past three to four decades was condsidered a driving force of economic development, structural changes and job creation also serving as a tool to fight against global poverty.

The PM noted that the process of globalization had boost the need of the economies to be competitive and innovative.

"We are fully aware that the matrix of a person's passivity still prevails in Macedonia... However, Macedonia today is creating a new generation," Gruevski stated.

A national strategy with an action plan for entrepreneurial learning in Macedonia in 2014-2020 is being prepared and a nation-wide campaign has been launched for stimulating entrepreneurship. Moreover, 2012-2020 Innovation Strategy has been drafted based on an analysis made by the government in 2011 and 2012.

49 business plans from 19 cities in Macedonia took part in the competition this year.