Greek companies have invested 473 million euros over two decades in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), according to data released by Skopje’s National Bank.
This makes Greece the third largest investor in FYROM in the period 1997-2017, despite the difficulties created by the naming dispute.
Ahead of Greece is Austria with investments of 637 million euros and Great Britain which invested 531 million euros. Overall, according to the data, between 1997-2017 direct foreign investments in the country were 4.7 billion euros. Greek investments amount to 10.1 percent out of the total. There are about 300 Greek companies operating in the FYROM, mostly in construction, telecommunications, textiles, service industries, and banking.
The acquisitions of Stopanska Bank by the National Bank of Greece, the OKTA refinery by Hellenic Petroleum, and the mobile operator Cosmofon by the Greek Cosmote Group are some of the largest Greek business undertakings in the Republic of Northern Macedonia so far.
