Cash Centre in North Macedonia The project scope is the establishment of a joint cash centre in Skopje, North Macedonia. This cash centre will comply with newest technology, ECB standards and regulations on secure cash counting. Their clients will be banks, supermarkets and large retailers in North Macedonia. The cash centre will be an independent company, which caters for many different customers. Banks do not consider cash counting as core business, but purely as a cost, which is still done manually and in-efficiently. Given the low number of processed bank notes and high cost of new cash processing equipment, North  Macedonian banks are not willing to invest themselves. The proposed cash centre will be able to purchase the latest professional cash processing tools and equipment due to its proposed large client base of various banks and retailers. It could lead to a reduction of 30% in cash handling costs for their clients. Especially, large supermarkets like Vero and Ramstore are enthusiastic as they now pay high commissions to banks for the cash-handling of their businesses. With multiple banks and retailers operating in one cash centre, a substantial number of high-risk and expensive transports via CIT (cash in transfer) companies can be avoided for each participant. Furthermore, every client will have 24/7 access to its own specific virtual cash processing centre via the project's sophisticated software. This will offer them a virtual cockpit, which will allow them to optimise their cash flows for their own operations. The joint cash centre will be innovative for North Macedonia. The shareholders, Beylar Holding (NL) and local partner Nikob will set up a joint venture to organize this project. They are both very much experienced in the security business, as the applicant has assisted in the establishment of numerous cash centres (UK, NL, etc) and local partner is the market leader in the security industry of North Macedonia with a large network of prospective clients for the joint venture.Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)The joint venture will be a reliable partner for its staff, suppliers, clients and other stakeholders. This project touches upon a wide range of CSR related issues, most notably with respect to labour standards, training for the staff, anti-corruption, and the environment. The partners will not tolerate any type of discrimination; on the contrary they will promote diversity within the company. The partners will acquire the ISO 14001 environment system certification.Impact•	Employment and working conditionsAll employees will receive wages at least 200% above minimum wages in North Macedonia, i.e. 190 euro to 357 euro for basic level and 390 euro to 813 euro for medium/high level jobs per month. Additional benefits include 40 hours workweek, paid overtime, healthcare insurance.•	Innovation / Transfer of knowledgeThe project offers banks and retailers a more practical cost-effective and safer solution for cash counting than currently available in North Macedonia. A joint cash centre is new for North Macedonia, which allows every participant to have a virtual cash centre. This implies, that cash is stored centrally at the cash centre/banks, but the actual control/overview is made available for each client separately. The economies of scale will allow the cash centre to purchase professional cash processing equipment with authentication and forgery detection features and the necessary software. At the moment, cash counting is only done manually. Automated cash counting equipment will be more cost-effective. Staff will be trained in fixed protocols to deliver reliable services for its customers.•	Chain effectsImpact on local suppliersThe project will lead to increased employment and income for 8 local suppliers. These suppliers range from clothing manufacturing, accountancy services to a PR company.Impact on local customers or consumersThe local customers of the joint venture (banks, retailers) will benefit from cheaper cash handling services due to efficient equipment of the joint cash counting centre. It will have added benefits like increased safety (less transport) and less theft risks by better monitoring qualities via a virtual cash centre. These cost advantages will also benefit the North Macedonian economy in general, as it will reduce transactions cost.•	Impact on the sectorThe quality of banknotes in North Macedonia is quite bad and theft of cash easily occurs as no adequate traceability and reconciliation tools exist at local bank branches. Thus, it is common practice for banks to store as little cash as possible at their branches to minimise this risk. The availability of cash will be enhanced as the new cash centre will offer real-time overview of cash funds of banks at the cash centre via the virtual cash centre monitoring tool. This tool will allow banks to order specific cash amounts for retail clients at the cash centre, which can be requested by retail clients online (2 hours in advance). Currently, cash requests take 2 days in North Macedonia.The project will co-operate with the FON university, St. Cyril and Methodius university for internships. Nikob already has partnership in place and will extend the partnership for the new project.•	EnvironmentNeutral, due to its service related character of the project.•	Position of womenNeutral. The cash centre will provide low-cost secure cash counting services to a number of banks and large retailers in the Skopje region. They will offer their clients a virtual cash centre.