The South East Europe 2020 strategy will contribute to integrating the region further into the European and global economy by participating in the international chain of procurements, support for improved international competitiveness of the national economies and heightened regional trade and new investments.

This was stated by Minister of Economy Valon Saraqini at the 7th meeting of the CEFTA Joint Committee presenting the priorities of Macedonia, the next holder of CEFTA's chairmanship.

Further trade liberalization, elimination of non-tariff barriers and unnecessary technical trade barriers, trade mitigation by introducing transparent tools and simplification of trade procedures were pointed out as being Macedonia's priorities during its CEFTA chairmanship.

Other priorities include promotion of regional cooperation in terms of competitiveness, intellectual property rights and public procurements. An initiative will be also launched on the establishment of an investment concept for increased participation in the regional chain of procurements and the global network of procurements and maintaining of synergy between the application of CEFTA and SEE 2020 in connection to integration into the global economy.

"I believe that with these priorities we will introduce a fresh reform to the CEFTA Joint Committee which is tasked with continuous implementation of the agreement's provisions," Saraqini noted.