North Macedonia has, according to their governmental site an excellent infrastructure consisting of more than 13,000 km of roads with new projects continually being carried out.
With a population of just over 2 million it is said to be the “Incredible shrinking country” with many young people seeking education and employment in Europe, the most obtaining access to Europe through acquiring a Bulgarian passport which allows them not only to travel to the EU but also to study and work there.
With regards to the 13,000 km of roads one thing is sure, there are no traffic jams on the provincial roads or motorways. In fact we have been known to drive from Skopje to Kocani and had enough fingers to count the number of cars we encountered.
Skopje has a population of 428,988 people according to the 2022 census leaving around 60% of the population in urban area’s, with a population density of 83 per Km2. In the UK that is 424, Scotland 68 per Km2, Spain 92, France 118 and the Netherlands a whopping 508 per Km2.
In North Macedonia it is not usual to commute to work, people generally live within a few kilometers of their work and although the roads can be busy traffic jams are not a daily occurrence. In fact last week one of Johans colleagues took me into town to the ‘best butcher’, as I had asked where I should go for meat and he said “hop in the car I will show you”! As we turned out of the street we had to wait for 4 cars and he laughingly said, “wow, this is the first time I have seen a traffic jam in Kocani”!
However, driving into town on market day you could almost beg to differ but that is more because people tend to stop there car and get out where ever they need to be instead of looking for a parking space.
Roads are being developed, there is a new motorway from Skopje to Kocani so our journey from the airport takes 45 minutes instead of more than an hour, the last part of the motorway, or provincial road is still being built.
This does not stop cars driving along it.
Although the road is closed off, there are barriers where it starts and there are no road markings, there are piles of stones along the way and in one place there is no tarmac and the improvised exit takes you across a strip of gravel its perfectly usable! I expected to see police waiting around the corner dishing out fines to those using it but it seems that this is accepted. There were also a few cars parked along the road enjoying the scenery and watching life pass by.
It appears that the road has been carved directly through the rice fields, I wonder if the owners of the fields were compensated in the same way that land owners are compensated in Europe when motorways and housing estates are built on arable land.
I suspect not.
The government defends the need to build these roads by stating the need for transport between Balkan countries and further, if you look at the geography of North Macedonia it can certainly be said that it provides a thoroughfare to many countries and for import and export this is of course a valuable asset. However, I wonder what the benefits the people of North Macedonia will be. Dotted here and there are large businesses which provide employment for the locals, but often the businesses invest only in the property and not in the country or culture resulting in culture differences and bureaucracy that cannot be resolved and the companies move on to what they hope will be greener grass.
It would be good to see more investment and benefits for the population, in education and work so that the loss of estimated 200,000 inhabitants due to emigration have a future in their own country instead of searching for a better life outside of North Macedonia.
Wanderings in North Macedonia 