POLICY BRIEF N.2 GENERAL ISSUES AFFECTING THE SHTIP ECONOMY AND THE APPAREL AND TEXTILES INDUSTRY

The most contingent problem of all interviewed companies in Stip is the problem with payments or most particularly enforcement of payment contracts. Most of the companies, especially in the apparel sector, work with traditional partners, and thus the insecurity to collect the due payments for them is lower. However this is somewhat conservative and backward behavior and not applicable in relation to the new changes in the apparel market pertinent to the Agreement of Textile and Clothing within the WTO framework, that will affect further changes in the apparel industry and thus the companies from Shtip should find alternative ways to pursue the same, or increase the level of production and in the same time arrange secure payments for their services.