COVER STORY
New USAID Regional Project
Supporting Tourism and
Other Sectors
T
he United States Agency for International
Development
(USAID)
Economic
Development, Governance, and Enterprise
Growth (EDGE) Project is a newly commissioned
regional activity to help create inclusive, sustainable
economic growth and support intra-regional and
Euro-Atlantic integration.
EDGE will be headquartered in Skopje and will
cover 12 countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova,
Montenegro, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia,
and Ukraine. EDGE will collaborate closely with
local organizations and businesses, as well as
with USAID and other donor projects, to bring
stakeholders across countries together to
address common problems.
EDGE will support activities in the following three
areas:
• Improving the Business Enabling Environment
(BEE) and Reducing Barriers to Trade
•
Improving Financial Sector Stability and
Increasing Access to Finance
• Improving Competitiveness through Value
Chains and Trade Promotion
EDGE will support activities to help small and
medium enterprises (SMEs) increase their
knowledge and skills, become more competitive,
and gain greater access to markets; and to help
Business Service Providers (BSP’s) improve
their operations and support for SME’s. In
this connection, EDGE will focus on three
EMERGING MACEDONIA
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