Prime Minister Zoran Zaev on Monday night hosted a reception and dinner for Japanese State Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Yoshihiro Seki, who spearheads his country’s business delegation on a three-day visit to North Macedonia.

The visit of Japan’s delegation will include a series of bilateral meetings with host-country officials and members of economic team led by Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Kocho Angjushev, Finance Minister Dragan Tevdovski, and Minister without Portfolio in charge of foreign investments, Zorica Apostolska.

The second part of the visit of the Japanese business delegation will include a tour of  the Directorate for Technological-Industrial Development Zones, and a tour of Bunardzik Zone 1 and 2, followed by a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Economic Affairs Koco Angjushev and the minister without portfolio in charge of foreign investments, Zorica Apostolska.

At the meeting, PM Zaev and Minister Seki discussed investment opportunities and modalities to attract foreign direct investments in North Macedonia. Zaev stressed that this year marks the 25^th anniversary of formal diplomatic ties between the two countries.

“We attach great importance to economic cooperation with Japan. It is first time we host a business delegation to our country. I am pleased that you recognize our country as a stable business destination and that you are here to explore investment opportunities,” Zaev told his guest.

Ford Motor said Monday that it is laying off about 7,000 managers and other salaried employees about 10% of its white-collar workforce across the world, as part of a restructuring plan designed to save the automaker $600 million annually.

The company said it would lay off 500 employees in the United States this week and an unspecified number over the next several weeks as part of a broader plan to shrink its salaried ranks by 7,000 people, or 10 percent, with the sharpest cuts at higher ranks.

Including jobs cut earlier this year, a total of 800 jobs in the United States will be cut by August, the company said.

“Consistent with our goal to reduce bureaucracy, we will have reduced management structure by close to 20 percent,” Ford’s chief executive, Jim Hackett, said in an email to employees. “This will result in annual savings of about $600 million.”

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has appointed Andi Aranitasi new Head of North Macedonia. Based in the capital Skopje he will succeed Anca Ioana Ionescu from 1 September, the bank said in a statement.

Aranitasi joined the EBRD in London in 1998 and worked for the Bank in Bulgaria from 2000 to 2005 as a banker. Among periods with teams covering Central Europe, Western Balkans, Telecoms and Power and Energy, he spent seven years based in Istanbul working in energy projects in Europe and Asia. He has spent the past two and a half years in Bulgaria, also focusing on energy projects.

After completing high school in his native Albania, Aranitasi won an Open Society Foundation scholarship to the American University in Bulgaria, graduating in 1996. He then joined the EBRD.

“What I want to do in North Macedonia is to continue the job the team has done so far, when it comes to connectivity, infrastructure and energy projects, and also to increase the share of the Bank’s private business,” he said.

To date, the EBRD has invested more than €1.87 billion in 117 projects in the Republic of North Macedonia, focusing on supporting the country’s integration into regional and global markets through the EBRD’s investments and other activities. For more than five years, the EBRD has been represented in North Macedonia by Anca Ioana Ionescu.