As a Director of the local British Chambers (The British Business Group Macedonia) we get calls to perform due diligence for many investors from all over the world.
This often includes recruitment so my opinion mainly comes from this perspective.
The challenge we have in Macedonia is that it the market is just too small to be considered strategic. Once one or two big players for any given sector enter the market they suck up all the best talent very quickly. Most companies understand this and have concerns about longevity so we normally discuss the entire Western Ballkans as a viable overseas market for bi lateral trade rather than one country alone. Although being based in Macedonia myself and finding it one of the more stable countries in the region, its not hard to see what country I lead with.
Macedonia has taxation advantages which are obvious and if one can tap an under utilised seam of resource in a particular area, the first players to enter the market can be in a great position.
IT - Manufacture, repair, servicing etc
Software development - Integration, Development and Support teams etc.
Agriculture - Just about everything.
Small scale manufacturing. Prototyping and low volume but labour intensive and highly skilled forming in particular.
These are all industries with some interesting potential here but they usually expect to pay local rates. Macedonia does offer work Visa's but the process is painful for employers and are very protectionist. The strong push it towards native skills and resources being a first port of call which makes a lot of sense to me. There is an opportunity for specialists in the fields I mention above and senior leaders with cross border business experience which cannot be found locally in many cases
The environment for Entrepreneurs is actually better in Macedonia than almost anywhere else in Europe in many ways. Although regulatory structures can be a bit of a block and there are some awful bureaucratic own goals in the country in many cases the cost advantages tend to outweigh the challenges and risk.
So as a country this is perhaps not your next great career opportunity unless you have a very specific niche, however if your a business leader you could consider the country strategically as a country to base resources in order to enable competitiveness in another territory. Many international businesses have done so already and this momentum continues to build. I can imagine the IT and Software sector in particular will be short of cross border experienced senior managers reporting to a board based at a HQ elsewhere.
Bearing this out, in terms of my own business which is a multinational legal, regulatory and Co Sec services business I find we are incorporating corporate entities in Macedonia for more and more parent companies within the EU, US and Middle East at present.
It is hard to say what is driving this but I suspect it is the favorable taxation and the low cost of hiring back office staff in the main.
That is my view for what it's worth.
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