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Southeast Europe
April 13, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 17
economic growth of 3.2% in 2018 that will open many new jobs. He also said that the authorities concluded contracts with 10 foreign investors
in the past ten months and their number are expected to increase to 18 by the end of the year.
The prime minister complained that his government inherited a debt of €280mn for the Skopje 2014 project to revamp the capital, which is 70% of the total amount allocated for capital investments for 2018. The controversial Skopje 2014 project, which was heavily criticised by the SDSM and many architects, ended up costing over €700mn.
Zaev also called on all MPs to support the concept of “one society for all” and urged President
Gjorge Ivanov to sign the language law, which
will make Albanian the second official language
in the country. The president and the opposition have fiercely rejected this law, claiming that it is unconstitutional.
Relations between the SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE are highly acrimonious. VMRO-DPMNE MPs only returned to the parliament for the debate after
a several-month boycott following the arrest of several of its MPs involved in violent incidents in the parliament in April 2017.
During the debate, VMRO-DPMNE accused the government of having no capacity to run the country. Its MPs also said that in the past 10 months the government failed to meet its pre- election promises to improve the economy and implement reforms.
The head of the SDSM parliamentary group Tomislav Tuntev said earlier on April 11 that the statements by VMRO-DPMNE MPs are “untrue” and not supported by “objective and measurable criteria”.
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