North Macedonia is in negotiations with five to six potential investors interested in data centre projects, including a major multinational company, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said on August 27, reaffirming the government's strategy of developing the country as a destination for data infrastructure.

Answering a journalist's question, Mickoski said data centres would play an increasingly important role in the global economy and that North Macedonia needed to recognise the opportunity if it wanted to accelerate economic development.

“The world will develop this and the question is whether we will recognise the moment if we want the country to develop,” Mickoski said.

The prime minister also rejected recent criticism of data centre projects, describing some of the claims as technically uninformed. As an engineer, he said he had initially avoided responding to what he considered inaccurate comments, but argued that data centres and artificial intelligence were already central to the development of major global technology companies.

Mickoski said the projects under consideration in North Macedonia would involve the construction of gas-fired power plants whose electricity would subsequently be used by data centres.

He separately addressed the proposed project in the town of Pehcevo, stressing that it was a private initiative involving a proposal for a draft urban plan and that the state was not involved.

“When the state will do or participate in the construction of such a facility, it will publicly and transparently say so to the citizens,” Mickoski said.

He reiterated that the government was currently negotiating with five to six potential investors and that one of them was a large multinational company.

Mickoski also criticised opposition parties for raising concerns over data centres while, in his view, failing to address demographic and economic challenges facing the country.

The prime minister argued that data infrastructure represents a long-term opportunity for North Macedonia, comparing its potential importance to oil as a strategic economic resource.

“This is the new oil,” Mickoski said, arguing that developing the necessary infrastructure and attracting major investors could help create economic opportunities and encourage young people who have left the country to return.

He acknowledged that the transformation would not happen overnight, but said creating the infrastructure needed for data centres and attracting major international investors was, in his view, the path towards turning North Macedonia into a more prosperous European country.