National Bank Governor, Anita Angelovska Bezhoska, at the Regional Governors’ Meeting, held in Rovinj, Croatia
Rovinj - Skopje, 12 June 2021
Hinting at the post-pandemic period, it is time to consider how to smoothly replace the general economic policies with more specific, sectoral policies which will facilitate optimal resource redistribution and post-crisis transformation of economies, in order to increase the potential for greater economic growth. Economies’ resilience should be strengthened and productivity growth should be stimulated in order to remove the economic scars from the pandemic. At the same time, the solution of pre-pandemic structural issues should be continued, while keeping pace with the post-pandemic needs that emerge, especially in the field of digitization.
This was stated by the National Bank Governor, Anita Angelovska Bezhoska, at the Regional Governors’ Meeting, held in Rovinj, Croatia.
In her speech, she also referred to the need to invest in infrastructure, especially in information infrastructure, as the basis of the new economy, in order to accelerate the digital transformation of economies.
“Although it is clear that the digitalization trend has accelerated and intensified since the health crisis, greater efforts need to be made to upgrade infrastructure, expand access to information and communication technology, promote an effective and widespread transition of many digital platform activities, and close down the digital divide in economies. This will increase productivity gains through faster adoption of new products and processes and will enable the private sector to smoothly adapt to the changes brought about by the health crisis.” - the Governor said.
In addition, as she noted, increasing "traditional" investments in transport, health and energy would improve competitiveness and create more employment, making countries more resilient and sustainable.
“The quality of the labor force is one of the key preconditions for raising the opportunities for sustainable economic growth and should therefore aim at increasing and transforming human capital in the economy, along with the digital transformation. Hence, special attention should be paid to the revitalization and transformation of human capital, through the diversion and increase of qualifications for new skills, which should be supported by increased investments, especially in the skills of "new post-pandemic jobs" and active policies on the labor market, which will alleviate some of the structural problems on the labor market. "- Angelovska Bezhoska emphasized.
During the discussion, Angelovska Bezhoska also referred to the issues of inflation, emphasizing that in the entire region, in this period, there are price movements that are influenced by the growth of global prices, which requires constant monitoring of the situation, although normalization is expected next year, when the price of primary products on the world markets is expected to fall.
Angeloska Bezhoska used the participation of senior representatives of central banks from the region at this key gathering for several bilateral meetings with colleagues from other central banks, which summarized the insights from the experience with the pandemic and the stake of central banks and discussed further deepening of the cooperation, both on regional and bilateral level.
The event was attended by central bank governors from almost all countries in the region.