CUTTING PUBLIC SPENDING AND TAXES - NEW GOVERNMENT'S PRIORITIES
admin1 – August 17, 2006 – 12:23pm

The proposed economic ministers in the new Government announced more competitive products, new hospitable business environment, private sector development, and cutting of public spending and taxes.

"We're going to create a climate in which both domestic and foreign investors will feel that the Government is their partner rather than someone imposing solutions without hearing what they think. All that we will do will be in the service of the private sector development," says Zoran Stavrevski, candidate for Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs.

He says that promoting private businesses and investments will be the Government's top priorities. Stavrevski says that the administration barriers to doing business have to be fast eliminated. He believes that at the moment the competitiveness of the homemade products have to improve because, he says, they keep losing ground on almost all the foreign markets.

As the future Finance Minister Trajko Slaveski, Stavrevski too announced cutting of taxes and public spending changes.

"The state now spends much more than what could be an optimal level and that's why we're going to try to reduce public spending. On the other hand, public investments have to considerably increase and much more money have to be set aside for capital spending," Stavrevski says.

According to Slaveski, a direct result of the reforms that the new Government is going to carry out is subduing unemployment and poverty and fast improvement of the standard of living. As future Finance Minister, he has already launched the idea of levying a flat rate for the personal income tax and the profit tax, in which case these taxes will decline by 10 percent.

The economic ministers in Nikola Gruevski's Government say they will observe the decisions of the National Bank in regard to the creation of the monetary policy and intend for now to keep to trend of controlled inflation.