10 Nov
Leadership Luncheon with President of the R. of Macedonia, Mr. Gjorge Ivanov
 On November 10th, 2009 the President of the Republic of Macedonia, Mr. Gjorge Ivanov marked off AmCham’s last Leadership Luncheon for this year.
The President of the AmCham Board, Mr. Ilijanco Gagovski, opened the luncheon with an overview of Mr. Ivanov’s educational and professional background stressing his career as a distinguished professor at the Law Faculty prior to being elected a President of the Republic of Macedonia.
 
The President began his speech highlighting that open trade market, innovations, new technologies and knowledge – can give us the key advantage for economic success in the time of global living. He also pointed out the challenges of the domestic economy.
President Ivanov talked about the history of Sparta; alluding that some people may have benefited of keeping Macedonia as Sparta for many years, by providing most expensive internet and air traffic in the region and wider. Macedonia has an ability to develop, and to reach out to Europe, but a prerequisite is competitive prices in the sectors of internet and air traffic.
 
He believes that Macedonia has a potential with the alternative energy sources like the solar energy, wind, biofuels and geothermal water. When asked how the knowledge can help the economy in the alternative energy, he stated that everything is in the knowledge, while time being a key factor.
The President gave an overview of the past century, naming first half of the past century “hard power” and the second half “soft power”, “while now” – he said: we live in the “smart power” period, with a focus on knowledge. He stressed that all Presidents of Macedonia’s neighboring countries hold a Ph.D. President Ivanov also gave positive comments on the Governmental efforts in investing in the educational and infrastructural knowledge, which will contribute to the economic growth of the country.
President Ivanov remains an optimist for the future of the country, even if he, as he stated, has no significant influence on the economy. He strives to give his utmost to help the domestic business sector get closer to the global one.
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Mitropolit T. Gologanov 42, Floor III, 1000 Skopje
