The Slovenian company Iskra d.d announced that it would invest in Macedonia in May 2008.
The former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and the General Manager of Iskra d.d, Slovenia Dušan Šešok signed a Memorandum of Understanding by means of which the Slovenian company expressed an intention to build a factory in the Skopje 1 – Bunardzik Technological Industrial Development Zone. It was announced that the Slovenian investment would be implemented in two phases, and that about a hundred workers would be employed in the first phase with this number reaching 500 workers by the end of the second phase. It was also announced that the production of electronic components would begin in September 2009. No further details were given on the amount of the investment.
To this day, the company has not made a single euro of investment in Macedonia.
"By signing this Memorandum of Understanding, the company Iskra d.d from Slovenia is coming to Macedonia to invest. Iskra intends to complete all the preparatory work by the end of this year, and to begin with the construction of the factory in Bunardzik by January of next year, at the latest", said Prime Minister Gruevski upon the signing of the Memorandum.
"For us, it is important that a company is coming to Macedonia to make investments in this specific area since we do not have many such companies. This will certainly expand our market, increase Macedonian export and will provide 500 new jobs," Gruevski said in 2008, pointing out that by the end of the second phase Iskra plans to sell products of an amount greater than 25 million EUR, which according to him, is a significant foreign financial inflow for the country.
Iskra General Manager, Šešok, said that the main reason behind their intention to invest in Macedonia was the treatment they received from the current administration.
"The difference between Macedonia and the other countries in the region is that you have a government that wants to make things happen. We have a great experience with this administration who has done a great job, and I think that many other important players can learn from Macedonia in this field, "said Šešok.
This Investment Agreement was announced in the peak of the 2008 election campaign, before the local and presidential elections. The potential investor’s comment in reference to that was "Iskra is a private company and is here to do business."
"I am not interested in politics, I do not even know the names of the Macedonian political parties. The reaction of this administration is the only reason we are here. I do not know which administration will be elected in the future, but I hope that it will as agile as this one", replied the General Manager of Iskra.
Further on, in a 2012 interview for the Slovenian magazine Finance, the General Manager of Iskra said that he is considering moving the labour intensive manufacturing to Macedonia because of the high Slovenian taxes.
"For example, half of social benefits for newly employed workers are covered by the state (...in Macedonia), there is no profit tax for the first ten years, and after first ten years, there is a 10% profit tax," said Šešok.