Skopje, 01.12.2022 – The Student Assembly of the Faculty of Technical Sciences, together with the University Student Assembly, organized a Panel-discussion on the topic: ‘Competitiveness of the workforce in North Macedonia and the European market’.
In the panel discussion, the guest of honor was Deputy Prime Minister in Charge of Economic Affairs, Fatmir Bytyqi Ph.D., who together with the host, Rector of MTU, Izet Zeqiri Ph.D., and the professor of economics at MTU, Rilind Ademi Ph.D., answered the students’ questions.
Rector of MTU, Izet Zeqiri Ph.D., said that North Macedonia faces a big loss as a result of migration, since the emigrants do not participate in the contribution to the gross domestic production because they work to increase the GDP of the countries where they have emigrated. Based on an analysis in our country, the cost of GDP losses is 15,849 euros. If immigrants contributed to their homeland, the gross domestic production of 10,635 million euros, would have been much higher and GDP per capita would have been higher than 5,132 euros. Zeqiri added that the government must take urgent measures to prevent the young people from leaving their country and for this we need stability and legitimacy in our institutions, enhancing credibility of citizen, investment growth, the growth of incomes and the economy, and increase in employment.
Deputy Prime Minister in Charge of Economic Affairs, Fatmir Bytyqi Ph.D., said that ever since he got this position, he has been working on finding a solution to the problems, so that in the future citizens have their rights for employment, starting a business and self-development based on laws, and not based on daily policies or campaigns of political parties. Based on these policies, Bytyqi announced the increase of the minimum and average salary during the next year. Professor of economics, Rilind Ademi Ph.D., said that in a more economically integrated world, the competitiveness of the labor force is a prerequisite for economic development.
“The productivity of the labor force is the indicator that allows us to compare with other countries but also among ourselves. The labor force in RNM has a productivity of 45% in relation to the average labor force productivity in EU countries. Our empirical analysis shows that countries with low productivity also have low salaries. If we see the dynamics of productivity and salary growth in RNM, we can conclude that salary has increased by 100% while productivity by 25% – 30”, said Ademi.
The panel discussion was led by the president of the Student Assembly at the Faculty of Technical Sciences, Ruvejd Idrizi.
At the end, a question-and-answer session was opened, while it was concluded that the main factors of productivity are the qualification ability of the workforce, managerial ability, flexibility of the labor market, the level of capital investments and technological development.
