North Macedonia’s new government to introduce ministry of energy

The new Government of North Macedonia will have five new ministries, including the Ministry of Energy, Mining and Mineral Resources. The name of the future energy minister has not yet been announced.

The changes are introduced by a new law on state administration makeover, proposed by North Macedonia’s prime minister–designate, Hristijan Mickoski, and adopted by parliament. The future government will have 20 ministries, up from 16 currently.

The new ones are the Ministry of Sports, the Ministry of Energy, Mining and Mineral Resources, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Digitization, and the Ministry of State Administration. In the outgoing government, energy and mining affairs fall under the remit of the Ministry of Economy, headed by Krešnik Bekteši.

Mickoski announced an energy investment project the region has never seen before

In one of his first public appearances as the new prime minister–designate, Hristijan Mickoski announced a new investment project in the energy sector.

It is a huge energy investment, he said, adding that this kind of project is something completely new, not only in North Macedonia, but the entire region.

Two large foreign investments and an expansion of two already existing foreign investments are going to happen in the first hundred days of the new government, he noted.

Zoran Gjorgjievski, Head of the Organized Electricity Market and Renewable Energy Sources department in the National Electricity Market Operator MEMO, said that the adoption of the law in the assembly with more votes than the necessary two-thirds majority represented a significant step forward for the energy sector.

This gives it the institutional focus it needs, Gjorgjievski added.

Three reasons for the new organization of the government

There are three main reasons for the new organization of the government, according to the law.

The first is ambiguities in the distribution of responsibilities between ministries. The second is the irrational distribution of functions and their grouping in individual bodies.

Finally, the areas that are currently strategic priorities of the state, represent key challenges, or are in the focus all over the world are not adequately represented in the institutional framework.

The last one could be connected with the formation of the Ministry of Energy, Mining and Mineral Resources.