Discussion at the meeting involved the activities CIF planned for this year, aimed at improving the competitiveness of regional companies for doing business in the European single market and third markets, promoting the legal framework for doing business, reducing tax and non-tax obligations of companies, facilitating the access to EU programs and funds, harmonizing the educational system with the real labor market requirements, as well as digital transformation.

Talking about the proposed activities that would make the region more attractive to investments, President Azeski pointed to the crucial importance of the coming EU-Western Balkans 6 Business Platform Meeting that will take place on 30 March in Skopje. Such dialogue will lead to resolving administrative, regulative, and technical issues relevant to the Western Balkan companies, but it would also help the private sector in the region to better understand the functioning of the European single market, to which companies are expected to adapt.

Parties at the meeting agreed that the EU-Western Balkans 6 Business Platform Meeting will ensure structured and continuous dialogue between the Western Balkan business community, acting through the CIF Business Council and the EU policymakers.

At the Skopje event next month, high representatives of the European Union and its directorates, regional institutions working on the regional economic agenda, and representatives of the business sector will discuss issues of importance to the private sector with an eye to promoting intraregional cooperation.

Headquartered in Trieste, the WB6 Chamber Investment Forum was established under the Berlin Process in 2015, initiated by the chancellor Angela Merkel, and acts as the voice of the private sector in the region, representing 350,000 companies in the Western Balkans.