Youth aspirtion survey in Republic of Macedonia young population that described the current situation as bad or very bad believe it will improve in the future. The majority of the respondents hold the government responsible for the economy's development, that is, 63.1% of the Republic of Macedonia's young population consider the government to be the institution that should deal with all urgent economic issues, as well as with corruption, which directly influences economic development. Namely, almost 72.4% of the young consider the corruption problem to be the culprit for the low economic growth, and the same percentage of them consider that it is due to the inadequate functioning of state institutions, primarily of the government. It could be concluded that corruption also exists to a great extent because the government is indifferent and takes no action to put an end to it. This conclusion could be supported by the Early Warning Report 51 data, which lists corruption(18%) as the second most-reported problem after unemployment (53%). However, it should be pointed out that 87.1% of the respondents are also self-critical, since they likewise consider their own bad working habits to be a great hindrance to economic growth. This conclusion could be confirmed by the fact that 85.6% of the young people think increasing their capacity to take on more work assignments could augment their incomes in the future. High-quality education, as survey results show, is a very important contributing factor to the economy's development. Two questions concerning education and economic growth were included in the survey. If we compare the answers given to the question about the importance of high-quality education with those to the question for the influence of inadequate education on the economy and its low growth, we will confirm the perception of a dependence between education and the economy. Namely, 56.9% of the respondents who claimed education quality influences economic growth stated that inadequate education is a key reason for the economy's slow growth(34.6% of the whole research sample). One of the economy's basic problems that directly influences the rate of unemployment and the negative trade balance is the low volume of foreign direct investments (FDI). Graph 4 shows the total assets invested in the Republic of Macedonia by foreign companies on a yearly level. This problem is also noticed by young people, among which 91% consider foreign direct investments as important or very important for the economy's development and the decrease of unemployment. This percentage is even higher among young people whose main occupation is economy Millions $ 500 $ 449 104 000 450 400 350 300 250 200 $ 139 460 000 150 100 $ 77 812 000 50 $ 80 643 000 $ 120 000 000 0 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Graph 4 52 _____________________________________________________________ 51 Ibid 52 Source: Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Macedonia. 53 www.cia.gov/worldfactbook/macedonia and business, 94.1%, i.e. 18.5% of the total number of the respondents. The slow pace of reforms in the administration and the judiciary is one of the reasons for the low rate of foreign direct investments. This is a serious problem, bearing in mind that investments are a key factor for the decrease of the unemployment and increase of the economic growth and the gross domestic product. This statement is also confirmed by the survey, in which 55.9% of the total number of respondents do not trust the judiciary at all, while 51.9% consider the highest priority to be the reform of the administration and the judiciary so that a higher economic growth can be achieved. One factor believed to have a potential influence on the development of Macedonia's economy would be European integration. The processes of European integration have contributed towards economic growth in Eastern European countries, and at the same time they have brought about a decrease in unemployment, especially among young people. The Republic of Macedonia's young people's attitudes reflect this situation, that is, 90.1% of the respondents who regard positively the integration of the Republic of Macedonia into the European Union(EU) consider that this will contribute towards a greater and faster economic growth. Thus, it may be concluded that the driving force for reforms in Macedonia-- which were initiated by the EU and which should reconstruct the Macedonian economy, as well as other segments of the society-- is the optimism for greater economic development through the EU-offered benefits. Similarly, the Republic of Macedonia's status as a candidate country and its initiative to start negotiations for accession to the EU could attract foreign investors who would bring fresh capital, thereby also contributing towards new work opportunities and a faster economic growth. Although agriculture represents 9.7% of the gross domestic product(GDP), industry 28.8%, and the service sector 61.5% 53 , the majority of the respondents consider agricultural development to be the greatest priority(41.4%), followed by 34.8% who chose industry. Only 17.4% of the sample(and 21.3% of the respondents from Skopje) chose as the greatest priority the development of the service sector, even though the service sector contributes the most to the GDP. From this, it may be concluded that young people's opinions about the economy are distorted to a great extent with regard to modern economic trends. However, it should be emphasized that these attitudes have been greatly influenced by the educational system, the media, and the general opinion that – given its agrarian traditions and favourable climate – Macedonia's agricultural pursuits are the most important branch of its economy and therefore deserve development. Some opinions were to be expected, such as the ones about how the economy's general situation relates to the respondents' personal financial situations. Namely, the majority of the respondents who declared their financial situation to be bad or very bad(93.5% of those with a very bad financial situation) likewise, as was expected, declared that the general economic situation is not on a satisfactory level, or that the situation in the economy is very bad. Surprisingly, 58.5% of the young people whose financial situation is good also perceive the general economic situation as unstable. This leads to a conclusion that although a part of the young people are personally satisfied by their own income, or the income of their family, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung 42