Investment policy review

The Investment Policy Reviews (IPRs) of UNCTAD help countries improve their investment policies and familiarise Governments and the international private sector with an individual country's investment environment. The IPR of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, initiated at the request of the Macedonian Government, analyses FDI trends and their impact on the host economy, provides a detailed evaluation of the legal and regulatory framework for investment, including concrete recommendations to improve it, and presents an overall strategy to attract investment that feeds into a government programme for stimulating investment covering the period 2011 to 2014. The report stresses that during the past decade, the Government has undertaken ambitious reforms to modernise the country, complete the process of transformation into a market economy, and improve the living conditions of the population. However, FDI inflows, though increasing, have so far been low compared to other South-East European countries. Among the factors holding back investment, the most important are outstanding issues in the business and investment environment, including in areas such as access to land and construction permits, as well as employment of foreigners, or implementation of existing legislation, and lack of coordination in policy-making and execution and the ensuing proliferation of insufficiently related and consistent development strategies, competitiveness plans, industrial policies and investment strategies. To meet the Government's double goals of increasing FDI inflows and deepening the benefits derived from them, an overall strategy building on five main pillars is suggested in the IPR, namely: (a) achieving global excellence in the investment framework; (b) creating synergies between FDI and industrial policy; (c) strengthening policy-making in the area of investment and competitiveness; (d) rationalizing the investment promotion effort and (e): ensuring effective policy implementation.