August 22 (SeeNews) - Macedonia will open between 1,300 and 1,400 new jobs in its industrial zones by the end of the year, up from 1,050 created so far this year, the government said.
Currently, the Free Zone Authority is negotiating investment projects with seven or eight companies and awaits two or three companies to decide whether they are interested to invest in Macedonia, the government announced in a statement published on Friday on its website.
The authority manages three fully operational zones - two in Skopje and one in Stip, the largest town in eastern Macedonia.
Another industrial zone - in Tetovo, in the west of the country, is operating as a public private partnership, and is in the process of implementing its first investment projects. Eleven more zones intended to boost the economic development of the country's regions are in various stages of development.
In 2015 Macedonia opened 5,100 new jobs.
Earlier this month the IBM Institute for Business Value released a global ranking of countries by new jobs per capita in 2015, which was headed by Macedonia thanks to robust investment in manufacturing, followed by its northern neighbour Serbia.
"Both these Balkan countries have seen substantial inward investment in manufacturing activities," the institute said at the time. "Positioning themselves strongly in sectors such as transport and electrical equipment, they offer compelling cost advantages compared to Central and Eastern European competitors."
Macedonia has a population of some two million.