USAID'S COMPETITIVENESS PROJECT - USAID Macedonia

Foreign Investment Promotion
Foreign investment enables a country like
Macedonia to quickly generate new jobs and
exports, while benefitting from transformational
global market linkages, technology and knowledge
transfer, domestic supply chain development and
upgraded skills base.
Macedonia should be well‐positioned to attract new
foreign investment. Not only has the Government
enacted a favorable legal and incentive regime, but
the recent economic crisis has caused global
companies to investigate new investor‐friendly and
lower‐cost locations to make their supply chains
more competitive. Furthermore, Southeastern
Europe, including Macedonia, is an emerging
investment destination considered by many
investors in Europe, and further east as Asian
Key Activities Key Outcomes
• Continued mobilization of
EDA network following up
on existing FDI leads and
generate new export
leads.
• Continued collaboration
with Invest Macedonia
and Minister of Foreign
Investment to attract and
support investment.
• Continued support for
pending logistics and
agribusiness investment
companies look to gain proximity and duty‐free advantages to penetrate the EU market.
• EDA finalization of $1,4mil of
full package shoes export.
New contract under
negotiations.
• Indian pharmaceutical
investment moving per
schedule and expected to be
realized in 2011. JV with
local partner registered and
final visit planned for April.
• Progress under joint venture
with investment in
integrated organic
agriculture.
• Logistics investment
expected to be realized in
2011
Despite these opportunities, Macedonia remains off the map for many, and little‐known by others. With the
right pitch and support, these investors could make Macedonia their home. The Competitiveness Project’s
Foreign Investment program has supported Macedonian efforts to attract investments likely to significantly
increase employment and export growth or have a transformative effect on the Macedonian economy. MCP’s
efforts go beyond the green field investments targeted by Invest Macedonia and include joint venture and
strategic partnerships in local companies. The Project has focused on developing a pipeline of potential
investments via a network of economic development agents (EDAs), servicing potential investors and
collaborating with the Government of Macedonia’s investment promotion efforts when opportunities arise.
This quarter involved maintenance of a series of FDI leads generated over the past months and year, including
a pharmaceutical investment, agribusiness investment and ongoing lead generation via the MCP EDA network
and collaboration with Invest Macedonia and the Minister of Foreign Investment. Even though a project
decision has been made to stop further work on new investment opportunities, the MCP staff has noticed
increased interest generated through the agent network specifically for JV opportunities and is carefully
evaluating the same. Apart from the follow up on existing investment leads, he project has been focused on
utilizing the network for export opportunities.
An overview of foreign investment promotion and export activities and accomplishments during Q2 2011 is
presented below.
Economic Development Agent (EDA) Network
To increase the flow of potential investor leads, MCP mobilized a network of professionals in Macedonia and
abroad (e.g. presently in India, Israel, Netherlands, Slovenia and UK) tasked to identify contacts interested in
investing in Macedonia (direct investment, strategic partnerships, joint ventures, or M&A). MCP has used a
tiered incentive scheme where agents are compensated based on the quality of leads generated and the
outcome of the actual leads. While compensation for a specific qualified lead is relatively small, the
compensation for a lead that becomes an actual deal is much larger. Once leads are generated and qualified,
MCP works with the EDAs to develop a plan and offer investors specific services, as appropriate.
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