Representatives of line ministries shared with us how they had improved their knowledge of program and performance budgeting when drafting the new law on budgets. They also reported on skilful engagement in the new programming (e.g. Investment program 2018–2021) and improvement of skills in budgeting and facilitating knowledge in their work environment. All agreed that the exposure to regional experience strengthened not only their confidence but also created a peer-support network.

Mišo Vasilevski from the Ministry of Transport talked about his experience with another capacity development support initiative for LM officials in Macedonia – a recent twinning project with Finland. He shared the lessons learned about the importance of relevant and skilful medium-term budgeting in line ministries for planning investment and securing funding from the EU and other sources.

We then looked into the development of the Line Ministries Portal (www.lineministries.org), an online learning space that supports knowledge and experience exchange in PFM among officials working at ministries of finance and line ministries in SEE. Many participants joined the community at the meeting and showed support to its utilization.

Finally, we took the opportunity to learn what would be the most meaningful way forward in strengthening the capacities of the Macedonian LMs with a discussion on our forthcoming follow-up project (MB-IPA funded) related to structural reforms. The National Economic Reform Coordinator Andrija Aleksoski gave the group a valuable view on the “big picture” and how LMs could strengthen their role in the design and implementation of economic and structural reforms in the country.