Macedonia and the Czech Republic signed Wednesday a protocol defining the guidelines of the countries' economic and trade relations as part of the first-ever two-day session of the mixed committee for bilateral economic cooperation.
Czech Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Milan Hovorka and Macedonia's Deputy Economy Minister Hristijan Delev signed the document and also served as co-chairs of the session, MIA reports from Prague.
At a meeting, they reviewed the potentials of the countries' economies and discussed future agreements for cooperation that are of mutual interest.
The joint committee comes as a result of the agreement on economic and industrial cooperation between the Macedonian and Czech governments signed in 2010.
"We are aware that we need to create an environment in which an economic cooperation will be enabled. Our objective is to establish a framework in which Czech and Macedonian companies will function as partners," Deputy Minister Hovorka told local media.
Underscoring his country's support for Macedonia's EU integration bid, the Czech Minister said the mixed committee discussed ways for providing assistance considering the fact that the Czech Republic was an EU member.
"The Czech Republic wants concrete cooperation with Macedonia in areas in which our EU integration experience would be of mutual interest, because sooner or later nothing will stand in the way between Macedonian manufacturers and their competitors in the Union," Hovorka stressed.
The Czech official added that huge potentials for cooperation existed in the field of energy, renewable resources, automotive industry, environment and agriculture.
During his visit to Prague, Deputy Minister Delev met with businessmen to promote Macedonia's investment opportunities.
The Macedonian delegation also paid a visit to the Czech automotive industry "Skoda" to meet with the company's management.
