SkopjeDiem Macedonia in English
In the annual report of UNDP for the Human development index in 2019, which was presented on Tuesday in Skopje, Macedonia has been ranked 82nd out of 189 world countries. According to the UNDP, Macedonia marks progress in the human development in all categories, but still is one of the countries with lowest growth rates in Europe. According to the President of Macedonia Stevo Pendarovski the ranking of Macedonia is what it is for two reasons. “First, only we and another 5 European countries are in the group of countries with high human development, while the other European countries are registered with very high development. Second, the only two countries in Europe ranked below us are not candidates for EU membership. We should take this report very seriously, because in the past 30 years the citizens of North Macedonia have given their trust to hundreds of politicians in over 20 election cycles, but the main topic of discussion among those politicians for 30 years now is can an average family in our country got through the month with only two minimum monthly salaries. Due to the high level of corruption, we still discuss cases of citizens being treated unequally by the laws, while young professionals still see their bright future beyond the borders of our country,” Pendarovski said. The UNDP Representative for Macedonia Narine Sahakyan said that the Development Programmes of UNDP are created in such a way that no individual is left behind in the human development. “Despite the fact that we register growth in all countries, I must point out that there are still great differences between countries with high and with very high human development. For example the life expectancy of people in countries with very high human development is by 19 years longer than that of people in the countries with high development,” Sahakyan pointed out. The UNDP Representative for Europe and Eurasia Ben Slay said that compared with the rest of the Balkan countries, the Human development index for Macedonia is not as high as it should be. “You need to invest your resources in the right areas. The point is not to just build hospitals, but to also provide the citizens with suitable conditions for them to live longer,” Slay said.
