The Fourth meeting of the Project Advisory Committee (PAC) established under the project „Catalyzing market transformation for industrial energy efficiency and accelerate investments in best available practices and technologies”, was held on December 14, 2017. The project is financed by GEF and implemented by UNIDO and the Regional Environmental Center – Country Office Macedonia.

The meeting of the Project Advisory Committee was held in complete formation, the competent institutions and project partners, donors and the non-governmental sector, as well as representatives of the REC Country Office Macedonia and the UNIDO Project Manager, Mr. Marco Matteini. The meeting was opened by Mr. Igor Slavkoski, REC Country Office Macedonia Director; further the meeting was chaired by Ms. Ana Petrovska, the National Project Manager and Co-chaired by Mr. Goran Nikolovski, as a representative of the Ministry of Economy. First, Mr. Matteini presented the achieved progress and the planned activities. Mr. Matteini expressed satisfaction from the project management and the achieved results. He notified of the realization of the replication program which is co-financed by EVN and new partner-industrial companies. Mr. Matteini announced that there were justified reasons to extend the project until the end of 2019. He informed about the cost efficiency of project resources and possible reallocations – shifting funds to increase the grant component available to beneficiaries of the credit line under project component 3. Afterwards, several successful industrial companies presented their successful experiences upon the realization of the Energy Management System; in addition, national consultants shared their experiences from their application of the knowledge obtained through the project in their commercial business. The participants showed a high interest for the presentations of the companies and consultants.

Also, a coordination meeting was held with the competent institutions (Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning, the Energy Agency, the Cabinet of the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Economic Affairs and the Secretariat for European Affairs). Discussion included, next to the progress, differences between Energy Audits and Energy Management Systems in industry, as well as the eligibility criteria for the industrial companies to access the credit line which is provided through the Macedonian Bank for Development Promotion  and supported by the Project.