The doors of international financial institutions in Macedonia are not closed, though some media claim the opposite. Macedonia has good relations with all the international financial institutions, with the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Monetary Fund and the European Investment Bank, the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski said.
In an interview for Nova TV he said all doors to finance good projects are open and there is no information that there is any reserve on their part in terms of financing the investment needs of Macedonia. According to him, the political crisis which has long been keeping the country hostage, apparently is accompanied by a propaganda war in which various incomplete information and misinformation are spread.
"Such was the information that the other day came out in public, and refers to the funds that the World Bank has approved us in January. The truth is that the board of the World Bank in early January approved a loan to support the municipalities in Macedonia in the amount of USD 28 million. In that time the elections were scheduled for April 24, and since 60 days before that, comes a period of the technical government or the elections start, with the World Bank was agreed, that the loan should become effective immediately after the elections. The World Bank does the same with other countries in the similar situation", Stavreski stressed.
According to him, this information was known in January, and some media had reported on it, and now, in order to highlight that allegedly the country is restricted of the funds, is recycled and gets a different dimension.
"The first information that came out on some media were that the World Bank stops financing of Macedonia. This is not true. It has already approved a loan which was to be effective after the elections. Then, we decided to put off the elections, and it is our internal problem, for political reasons they were postponed from April to June. The overall funding of the World Bank and IMF are not stopped", Stavreski explains.