Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in SkopjeMinistry of Foreign Affairs

No. 5 / April 2010

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Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in SkopjeMinistry of Foreign Affairs

No. 5 / April 2010

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“Be CreActive, Design Your Future City” is the theme of this year’s events around the celebration of Queen’s Day during the month of April. The events address com-ponents of the creative city concept: architectural and landscape design, bicycle-friendly urban planning, con-temporary arts, tourism and sustai nable develop ment. The creative bicycle festival Velofest, Dance Fest Skopje with performances by the Rotterdam Dance Academy and design workshops by the Dutch artist David Graas are examples of the events.

A Dutch park will be opened in Ohrid and last but not least: on 29 April the first weekly charterflight of Transavia will land at Skopje Airport directly from Amsterdam!

Humanity is another impor-tant element of every crea-tive city, and the start of the Queen’s Day activities will coincide with the start of the humanitarian action “You Can If You Want”. Under the name “dare2care” the initia-tors will collect money for the construction of an intensive care unit at the Paediatrics Surgery. See also page 12 and www.ntf.com.mk.

The month of April will be full of action. I hope to wel-come you at one of the many events we are supporting!

Simone Filippini, Ambassador

Economic NewsLetterNetherlands Embassy MacedoniaThe Economic NewsLetter of the Embassy of the King-dom of the Netherlands in Skopje offers you twelve pages of news, bringing the Dutch and Macedonian business community closer together.

ContentsEmbassy NewsEnvironment Programme for Bucim and Lojane MinesCustoms Twinning Co-operation ContinuedDutch Grant of 7 Million EUREmbassy on Twitter

Business NewsTransavia: Direct Flight from AmsterdamCBI Brings Dutch and British Fashion Buyers to MacedoniaCBI Support for Macedonian Wine

InterviewFrom Peanuts to Fighting Counterfeiting

Queen’s DayApril 2010: Month of “Be CreActive”

StatisticsFDI Development

Short News EVD Now Part of Agentschap NL - ORIO Call Open - Second PSI Tender - Fact Sheets -Feasibility Studies - Spreekdagen -SME Forum

Note: logos and blue text are hyperlinks to websites!

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Embassy NewsEnvironment Programme for Bucim and Lojane MinesIn 2008 the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) initiated the West-ern Balkan Environment Programme which is fully financed by the Netherlands with 15 million USD. Part of this programme is the project “Sustainable Mining Clean Up and Pollution Management in Bucim and Lojane Mines”.

The objective of the UNDP Western Balkan Environment Programme is to provide so-lutions for environmentally hazardous “hotspots”. The Netherlands is financing this programme with 15 mln. USD.

Heavy metals insurface water

Since the start of Bucim cop-per mine near Radovis in 1979, leakage water from the mine and waste dump has been pol-luting the surface waters in the area with heavy metals, mostly copper, zinc, nickel, cadmium and arsenic. The project will enable cleanup of surface water and air pollution prevention. A system for col-lection and treatment of the water from the mining zone and waste dump and pumping of the polluted waters back into the technological process is constructed. Additionally, a

The emerald green colour of copper oxide is always present in the river Topolnica, due to the waste water from the Bucim copper mine. The project “Sustainable Mining Clean Up and Pollution Management” will put an end to this.

Highly toxic chromium tri-oxide provides an oran ge colour to the piles of waste at the abandoned Lojane mine near Kumanovo.

forestation of the hydroflota-tion dam will be completed as well as a watering system in order to prevent air pollution from the waste dust.

15,000 tons arsenictrioxide concentrate

The Lojane Chromium and An-timony Mine near Kumanovo was active in the period 1923 till 1979. The waste that was generated by processing the ore was disposed just in front of the plant. Today, the ruins of the plant are marked by orange piles of waste, due to the highly toxic chromium tri-oxide. These piles also contain some 15,000 tons of highly

toxic 50% arsenic trioxide, which is a common by-product of processing other ores. Since the waste has a very fine struc-ture and there is a local school in close vicinity, the interven-tion will focus on cleaning up the existing waste dump and preventing further air, soil and ground water pollution.

web links

programme document

• programme website• Netherlands and Western Balkans Environmental Network (NEWEN)• UNDP Macedonia

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Embassy NewsCustoms Twinning Co-operation ContinuedWith a ceremony in Skopje on 9 March, a new technical co-operation project between the Dutch and the Macedonian customs administration started. The ceremony marked also the official closure of the previous project of five years of fruitful technical co-operation.

Since 2003 Dutch customs officials assist their Mace­do nian colleagues in impro-ving their operation. The ini-tial assistance evolved into a five­year twinning pro gramme that started in 2005 and was funded by the Nether lands with 420,000 EUR. The pro-gramme and its continuation include five components:1. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection2. Customs Procedures3. Origin of goods4. Customs Valuation5. Audit control, accounting, communication skills and capacity buildingEspecially in IPR protection, the Macedonian customs made significant improvements and received the Yolanda Benitez

Trophy for combating counter-feiting from the World Cus-toms Organization. (See also the inter view with Eli Mufi­sovski on page 8).

The current project which will end in 2013 is financed by the Dutch MATRA programme with 300,000 EUR. See also the brochure on this co-operation.

On 26 March 2010 Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Zoran Stavreski signed for a 20.5 million EUR loan from the World Bank and an additional 7 million EUR grant from the Netherlands. The Dutch grant agreement for macro-support was pro-vided as an addition to the Program matic Development

Policy Loan (PDPL) of the World Bank. In order to obtain this PDPL significant reforms had to be implemented in pub-lic expenditure management, labour market and financial sector stability.

Compliment

“The Government of Macedo-nia deserves a compliment

for the way it managed the effects of the global financial crisis. Our support is a sign of the confidence that Macedo-nia will continue with reforms to strengthen the Macedonian economy and the prosperity of its citizens. A strict macroeco-nomic policy is still required,” said ambassador Filippini.

Embassy News Dutch Grant of 7 Million EURThe Netherlands provided a grant of 7 million EUR to the Macedonian govern-ment for macro-support.

continued on page 4

Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in SkopjeMinistry of Foreign Affairs

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Embassy NewsEmbassy on TwitterSince 22 February 2010 the Netherlands Embassy in Skopje provides real-time updates on its activities through Twitter.

The website www. twitter. com was established in 2006 as a platform for sharing current status, activities and ideas with the world in messages of not more than 140 char-acters, known as “tweets”. These tweets may also contain referen ces to (news) articles at other websites as well as references to pictures.Both tweets and pictures can easily be send by mobile phone, right on the spot.

At twitter. com/ NLinSkopje the Netherlands Embassy in Skopje provides real-time updates on Dutch-Macedonian co-operation.

Minister of ForeignAffairs first Dutch

politician on Twitter

The outgoing Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maxime Ver-hagen can be considered an “early adopter” in using Twit-ter, being the first Dutch poli-tician to very seriously using this service.Since July 2008 Verhagen is sharing his activities through

Twitter, which is only a month or two after presiden-tial candi date Barack Obama started tweeting as part of his campaign.Verhagen has sent more than 7,000 tweets (Obama: some

650), using either the website or his iPhone.So far, the Embassy has 46 followers and has sent 38 tweets. Minister Verhagen has well over 34,000 followers and Obama: 3.7 million.

“This will be the last time that the Netherlands will be provid-ing macro-support to Mace-donia. However, this does not mean that our assistance to Macdonia will end. We will continue to support Macedonia through other pre-accession instruments of the Nether-

lands,” said the ambassador.

among biggest donors

Minister Stavreski stated that the Netherlands is one of the biggest donors in Macedonia and has provided over 200 million EUR support of which more than 100 million EUR

was budget support. “We hope that we will justify the trust of the World Bank and the Neth-erlands in Macedonia. Their support is a testimony of the adequate policy of the Gov-ernment aimed at improving the living standard in Macedo-nia”, said Stavreski.

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Business NewsTransavia: Direct Flight from AmsterdamOn Thursday 29 April at 08h40* Transavia flight HV 227 from Amsterdam will land at Skopje Airport.

The Dutch-Macedonian tour operator Karatanova Tours played a leading role in per-suading Dutch charter airline Transavia (Air France-KLM sub-sidiary) to start direct flights to Mace donia from Amster-dam. “Things started moving after the Dutch and Macedoni-an Ambassadors Filip pini and Dimitrov met with Schiphol Group,” says Dennis Spaan, business partner of Kocirov.

History teacher

In 2003 Vasko Kocirov esta-blished Karatanova Tours. Kocirov is still employed as a teacher of history at a secon-dary school in the Netherlands, but since the success of Kara-tanova Tours only part-time. Both Kocirov and his wife orig-inate from Strumica, Macedo-nia and live in the Netherlands since 1992.

Vakantiebeurs

In 2008 foreigners spent 587 thousand overnights and 167 million EUR in Macedonia (source: State Statistical Of-fice, National Bank). Since 2004 Kocirov has brought some 2,000 Dutch tourists to Macedonia. In January he presented the upcoming char-terflights at the international tourism fair Vakantiebeurs in Utrecht. The fair celebrated its 40th anni versary with 1,600 exhi bitors from 60 countries world-wide, showing their offers to 117,335 visitors.

From May through October 2010 Transavia operates di-rect flights from Amsterdam to Macedonia on Thursdays. * Only 29 April: arrival 08h40

early/late season: Skopjehigh season: Ohrid

17/24.06 and 02/09.09:combination Skopje/Ohrid

The following Dutch travel agencies visited Macedonia in February and now offer trips to Mace donia with charter flights of Transavia:

Karatanova Tours 0252 869556 www.karatanovatours.nlDe Jong Intra 0180 457803 www.dejongintra.nlPeter Langhout 0900 0991 www.peterlanghout.nlID Riva 010 4111128 www.idriva.nlQ-International 055 5395800 www.qxxl.nlOne2gether Travel 013 8200200 www.one2gethertravel.nlGlobal Cyclist 0263 391720 www.globalcyclist.com

Macedonia was also present at the international tourism fair Vakantiebeurs, January 2010, in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

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Business NewsCBI Brings Dutch and British Fashion Buyers to MacedoniaThe Dutch governmental agency CBI is active in Macedonia with an Export Coaching Programme for the apparel industry. CBI joint the USAID Macedonian Competitiveness Project in organizing a B2B event in Skopje.

CBI and the Macedonian Com-petitiveness Project (MCP) of USAID organized a B2B event in Skopje for the Macedonian apparel industry, targeting the UK market.

Top UK fashion retailers

MCP’s Project manager Brett Johnson set very high targets for this event. Not only he was focus sing on the top companies in UK fashion retail, he also managed to gather the Dutch governmental agency CBI, the German GTZ and the Swiss SIPPO to jointly organize this event. And indeed, Johnson did succeed to raise interest among the largest UK apparel retailers. TopShop, Monsoon, Whistles and BMB Clothing

were among the companies that sent their staff to Skopje on CBI­financed flights.

Individual guidance

On 2 March Macedonian gar-ment manufacturers presen-ted themselves at Holiday Inn, Skopje, giving the UK guests the opportunity to meet with every potential supplier. The following days CBI experts provided individual guidance and detailed background informa tion during the factory visits with the objective to es-tablish sustainable business relationships.

Mr Ken Rankin, sourcing mana-ger for BMB Clothing, had the pleasure to visit 7 factories in

2 days, driving west, north, south and east of Skopje for a total of 800 km. Men’s coats and men’s shirts were his main interests. BMB Clothing is now planning sample orders with 4 of these factories.

Quality, workmanship

Major issue is the limited ca-pability of the manufac turers to provide fabrics themselves. Lack of knowledge, manage-ment capacity and affor dable working capital are the main reasons. Another very impor-tant issue on the UK market is certification for strict com-pliance with health and safety regulations. Johnson and CBI are already working on these issues.Still, all UK visitors are im-pressed with what they saw in terms of quality and work-manship.

Dutch eager to order

CBI already brought 5 groups of buyers to Macedonia, inclu-ding Dutch fashion companies like Corel, Summum Woman, Venducci and M&S Mode, all of which already started sam-pling and are eager to start business up to 9,000 pieces for a single order.

See: www.cbi.eu/garments

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Business NewsCBI Support for Macedonian WineCBI, agency of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, supports the Macedonian wine industry both individually and sector-wide.

In spring 2009 Dutch govern-mental agency CBI launched an Export Coaching Pro-gramme for Macedonian win-eries. First event in this 5-year programme was the EXport PROfessional training of one week in Rotterdam.

ProWein, Düsseldorf

Ten Macedonian wineries have been supported by CBI to par-ticipate in the fair ProWein in Düsseldorf, 21-23 March. Ad-ditionally, the wines have been presented at a meeting of the Dutch Wine Board.Since Macedonia does not yet have a branch organization for wine and since the Minis-try of Agriculture started pre-paring a national strategy for this sector, CBI decided to fa-cilitate also the development of a “sector export marketing plan”.

Minister Dimovski at kickoff conference

At the kickoff conference in December 2009 in Skopje CBI welcomed the Minister of Agri-culture, Mr Ljupco Dimovski, as well as representatives of the wineries, the Ministry of

Economy and the Netherlands Embassy.

Joining forces

Participants at the conference stressed the need for joining forces in order to become suc-cessful on the export markets.

Mr Mile Kostov of Skovin put it this way: “We are gathered here thanks to CBI and the Ministry. We never took the initiative to gather ourselves.”Mr Nikola Ljubotenski of Ima-ko Vino pointed out the risks of any further postponement of jointly defining strategies, plans and actions: “It is a race; Macedonia is not the only country that wants to put its wines on the European map.”

Four workshops

Four workshops have been scheduled in which all stake-holders - i.e. private sector,

chambers of commerce and the ministries of agriculture and economy - together de-velop a national export mar-keting plan for the wine sector.

The first workshop in Febru-ary focussed on the internal analy sis of the sector.

At the second workshop in March participants were deal-ing with the analysis of the EU market.

Co-operation AgBiz

In both projects, CBI closely co-operates with AgBiz, a project of USAID.

See: www.cbi.eu/wine

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InterviewFrom Peanuts to Fighting CounterfeitingBoth her parents came from Macedonia, but she is born and bred in the Nether-lands. She studied law in Groningen, but started her career in the management of the restaurants and pubs of the family. Now, Eli Mufisovski (34) is a law en-forcement professional in Macedonia, fighting counterfeiting.

In the early seventies Vera and Mile regularly spent some months in the Netherlands, initially for taking a student job during summer. A few years after the birth of Eli, they opened their first restaurant.Until Eli Mufisovski graduated from the faculty of Law in Gro-ningen, her family was run-ning “Grill Restaurant Ohrid” in Assen.

Peanuts

When did you emigrate to Macedonia?“Well, in 2000 I moved to Mac-edonia, but at that time my in-tention was to stay only tem-porarily. Our pub Piazza Liberta opened in Skopje in June that year and that was the occa-sion for my arrival. Even after a decade, Piazza Liberta is still known for the peanuts I in-troduced as a complementary snack!”

But the pub alone was not

challenging enough.“Exactly. It is a valuable expe-rience to open a pub - it is an enormous amount of issues you have to deal with! But as soon as it was running, I became the first “senior trade assistant” at the Netherlands Embassy. One and a half years later I had to conclude that there were no further possi bilities to grow within the Embassy - unfortunately, because I enjoyed very much working there.”

Holland House

“A period of various activities followed and in the summer of 2005 we opened the pub Plaza de Toros. Whenever the Dutch national soccer team is playing, we turn Toros into the “Holland House”, recognizable by everybody by the orange decorations!”What was your next move

Intellectual Property Rights” is one of the themes on the road to EU integration and this caused my introduction to SNB React, a Dutch organization that takes action against coun-terfeiting - let’s say “fake ver-sions of world known brands”. Now I am leading a team of 5 employees in Skopje, fighting counterfeiting.”

What does fighting counter-feiting mean in daily practice?“First of all, we try to enforce compliance with the laws on protection of intellectual pro-perty rights (IPR). The pro-cess towards EU inte gration has urged the Macedonian customs authorities to pay at-tention to this issue. Besides, fighting counterfei ting also has positive effects on taxes, consumer safety and of course the general image of a coun-try. Finally, fighting counterfei­ting hits the criminal organiza-tions that are often behind the production, trade and sales of forged goods.”

Organizing destruction

“In Macedonia we get our leads on possible counterfeit goods mostly from the cus-toms (some 70%) and the market inspection. We first contact the brand owner for verification, usually based on pictures but sometimes based on a sample. In case the brand

after the opening of Toros?“The Netherlands and Macedo-nia have a twinning project to improve the operation of the Macedonian customs. “Border Enforcement for Protection of

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owner confirms that the goods are counterfeit and orders us to take action, we contact the consignee, the transport com-pany and finally the consignor. If none of them replies, we proceed to organize destruc-tion of the goods.”

Confusing similarity

What are the further conse-quences for counterfeiters?“Very often none. SNB-React has some 160 members, most-ly world-famous brands. Their main interest - and therewith the objective of SNB-React - is to prevent counterfeit pro ducts from appearing on the market. Identification and destruc tion of counterfeit products is a very cost-effective measure to reach this objective. However, we do try to claim the costs of destruction.Sometimes we meet in court, but usually in cases of “confus-ing similarity” - let’s say look-alikes. For example in case of sports shoes with 4 diagonal stripes: that gets too close to an Adidas-shoe with three stripes. Up to now, we have won 8 cases and lost none.”

How are your actions financed?“The members pay a member-ship fee based on the desired geographical coverage and they pay also a fee per case. In Macedonia we work for only 40 members. The others have chosen not to include Mace-donia in their coverage, for example because their trade mark is not registered here. In case we have a lead for a non-member, the brand owner concerned might be represen-ted by another organization or

still order us to take action. If not, the goods will have to be released.”

Internet Monitoring

The list of members includes famous brands in various sec-tors, but not in software or film industry.“True. These sectors have or-ganized their own measures against illegal copying, dis-tribution and downloading, which is not the same as coun-terfeiting. SNB-React focusses on physical products, rather than “virtual”.However, we do fight the sales of counterfeit products on vir-tual marketplaces. Part of our team in Skopje is dedicated to “internet monitoring”. We have agreements with Ebay (includ-ing the Dutch Markt plaats) and similar sites worldwide that

enable us to actively remove advertisements of counterfeit products. Through internet providers we also have the entire content removed from websites that are dedicated to counterfeiting of a certain brand.”

What are the results of your efforts?“First of all, the Macedonian customs authorities realized a very high enforcement of the regulations. We managed to have the simplified proce-dure of “silent acceptance” fully applied in Macedonia. These two facts have lead to a decrease of the number of cases with 19% in 2009, which shows that tracking and de-stroying counterfeit products is effective.”

SNB (Stichting Namaak Bestrijding) was established as a foundation in 1991 by the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce to fight counterfeiting. Meanwhile, the European Commission supported the establishment of RE-ACT in Italy. In 2002 SNB and REACT merged into the co-operative asso-ciation SNB-REACT UA. In 2006 SNB-REACT Macedonia started, covering also Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey.

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Queen’s DayApril 2010: Month of “Be CreActive”The Netherlands Embassy organized a wide palette of activities around the Queen’s Day Celebration. Theme is “Be CreActive, Design Your Future City”.

Date Time Venue Activity

07.04 18h00 Youth Cultural Centre Bicycle tour around the City of Skopje and official opening of Velo Fest07.04 21h00 Youth Cultural Centre First public screening of “Whilst the Water Silently Speaks” movie by Kole Angelovski07.04 22h00 La Kana Spanish Bar Party with music for cycling08.04 17h30 Faculty of Architecture Bicycle-friendly urban design, workshop by Mr Wim van der Wijk, Infrastructure and Transport advisor at Royal Haskoning08.04 19h00 Youth Cultural Centre Exhibition of bicycle photographs Vesna Trpkovska, Tomislav Georgiev09.04 19h00 Youth Cultural Centre Award ceremony for the most beautiful urban bicycle and the oldest bicycle in Macedonia10-28.04 various towns Bicycle tours, photo exhibitions, movie screenings and parties with “bicycle” music in several towns in Macedonia14-29.04 Art Institute Skopje Cardboard design workshop guided by Dutch designer David Graas14.04 20h00 Skopje Dance fest – Performance of Rotterdam Dance Academy17.04 20h00 Bitola Dance fest – Performance of Rotterdam Dance Academy23-24.04 all day Krusevo Creative industries workshops28.04 all day Ohrid Opening of Dutch Park and IK Banka branch office, Velofest bicycle tour29.04 09h30 Skopje Airport Arrival of the first Transavia charter flight from Amsterdam to Skopje29.04 10h25 Skopje Airport Departure of the first Transavia charter flight to Amsterdam29.04 13h00 Municipality of Čair Opening of an open-air stage in the Park in Cair29.04 19h00 Alexander Palace Hotel Reception (upon invitation)30.04 DVD with “While the Water Silently Speaks” and a collection of bicycle photographs published in Nova Makedonija daily newspaper

On the occasion of the celebration of the birthday of Her Majesty Queen Beatrix, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Macedonia organizes and supports a series of events starting from 1 April and ending on Queen’s Day.“Be CreActive, Design Your Future City” is the motto of all planned activities as they all represent some of the components of the creative city concept: creative architectural and landscape design, bicycle-friendly urban planning, contem-porary arts, tourism and sustainable development. See the programme below.For more information, please visit www.nlembassy.org.mk.

StatisticsFDI DevelopmentIn 2008 the total Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in Mace-donia were 400 million EUR. In the first three quarters of 2009, Mace donia realized an FDI inflow of 212 million EUR. Some 15% of the cumulated FDI is statistically Dutch. The National Bank of Macedonia however, does not provide de-tails on the companies behind the investments.

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Short NewsEVD Now Part of Agentschap NL

The Dutch governmental agency for international entre-preneurship EVD is now part of Agentschap NL. All EVD acti vities will continue within the division “NL EVD Inter-nationaal”.

PSI, formerly known as PSO or PSOM, supports invest-ment projects carried out by a partnerschip of a Dutch (or foreign) company and a local company. For more informa-tion, see: www.evd.nl/psi

Fact Sheets

The Embassy has prepared Fact Sheets on market sectors in Macedonia, available through NL EVD Inter nationaal:agri: www.evd.nl/246718ict: www.evd.nl/244050textiles: www.evd.nl/244035

Feasibility Studies

Dutch companies that would like to investigate the feasibil-ity of projects in Macedonia, may apply for support from the 2xplore Programme. For more information, see:www.agentschapnl.nl/2xplore

Spreekdagen

Dutch companies with ambi-tions to start business rela-tions in Macedonia, can apply for a conversation with repre-sentatives from the Embassy in Skopje during the so-called “Spreekdagen”, from 13-15 September in The Hague, Utrecht and Groningen. See:www.agentschapnl.nl/seminars_spreekdagen

SME Forum

There are 20 places left for entrepreneurs from emerging economies to participate in the B2B event SME Forum in The Hague on 2 June.Companies from Macedonia may still apply for this event and present themselves to po-tential investors and institu-tions.

Participation fee: 1,000 EURDeadline: 20.04.2010Information and application:www.smeforum2010.org

COLOFON

Economic NewsLetterNo. 5 - April 2010

Embassy of the Kingdomof the Netherlands, Skopje

Leninova 69 - 711000 SkopjeRepublic of Macedonia

t: +389 2 3109250 +389 2 3129319f: +389 2 3129309e: sko@minbuza.nlw: www.nlembassy.org.mk

twitter.com/NLinSkopje

All contact details remain un-changed. Agentschap NL is an agency of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.

ORIO Call Open

The first Call for Propo sals 2010 for grants under the ORIO Faci lity for Infrastructure Development will close on 26.04.2010 at 17h00 CET. The Secretariat for Euro pean Af-fairs co-ordinates appli cations for ORIO support, but project initiatives may also come from the private sector and local governments in the areas wa-ter, environment and social services, including health and education. The second Call for Proposals for 2010 is expected to open by the end of May.See: www.evd.nl/orio

Second PSI Tender

The second tender for grants of the Private Sector Invest-ment programme (PSI) will close on 23.08.2010 at 17h00.

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