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MILS NEWS 96-09-23Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: "Macedonian Information Liaison Service" <mils@mils.spic.org.mk>CONTENTS
MILS SUPPLEMENTMILS NEWSSkopje, 23 September, 1996[01] DIALOGUE WITH THE ALLIANCE CONTINUESIt can not be said for sure when Macedonia will become a regular member of NATO, but the dialogue with the Alliance continues. At the meeting of a Macedonian delegation with NATO experts last week in Brussels, the 'White Book' was presented, containing information of the Macedonian military potential and the readiness of Macedonia to join this collective security system, but it is absolutely uncertain when a reply to it will follow. According to 'Nova Makedonija', this was presented at a press conference of the Macedonian Foreign Ministry last Saturday, when it was said also that presentation of the Republic of Macedonia in Brussels had been more than satisfactory. The press representatives were informed that several documents had been submitted, such as those informing of the relations of Macedonia with its neighbours, of the policy regarding the minorities, of the statistic data on macro-economic movements, as well as the central document - the 'White Book'. The initial information regarding which countries would be the Alliance extended to in the first round should not be expected before December, 1996, and the final decision about this matter will most probably be made in June, 1997, when NATO summit should take place.[02] HONORARY GENERAL CONSULATE OF AUSTRIA OPENED IN SKOPJELast Friday in Skopje, an Honorary General Consulate of the Republic of Austria was officially opened, and Aleksandar Tomov was appointed an Honorary Consul of this country to Macedonia. Local media reported that the Consulate will mostly deal with improvement of the economic relations between the two countries and of contacts in general.The Consulate was opened by the Secretary General of the Austrian Foreign Ministry Albert Roan, who led the Austrian delegation which visited Skopje and had meetings with Macedonian Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski, Foreign Minister Ljubomir Frchkovski and OSCE Chief of Mission to Macedonia Christian Faber Rod. The Austrian diplomat reported that Austria intended to open an Embassy and an Austrian Library in Skopje very soon. He added that Macedonian citizens would be then given visas in Skopje, which is currently done by the Austrian Embassy in Belgrade. According to the media, Roan and Macedonian officials had talked about the possibilities for increasing the presence of Austrian companies in Macedonia and to be included in the reconstruction of the economic infrastructure. They had exchanged opinions regarding the succession of former SFRY and the Macedonian request to become an associate member of the UN Security Council. [03] MACEDONIAN DELEGATION TO THE 51st UN GENERAL ASSEMBLYPresident Kiro Gligorov and Foreign Affairs Minister of the Republic of Macedonia Ljubomir Frchkovski yesterday left to New York to attend the 51st UN General Assembly. During their stay, President Gligorov will have meetings with a number of high officials, and several meetings of Minister Frchkovski with his counterparts from other countries have already been scheduled. The announcement of the President's Cabinet said that Macedonian delegates would also meet Macedonian emigrants to the USA.[04] 'KONTINENT': FRY DEMANDS 2,184 HECTARES OF MACEDONIAN LANDIn an article referring to the forthcoming border establishing between Macedonia and FR Yugoslavia, Bulgarian independent paper 'Kontinent' read that FR Yugoslavia has territorial claims to 2,184 hectares of the territory of the Republic of Macedonia. 'Makfax' agency reported the information of the paper that Belgrade had been postponing the border line fixing, reminding that the first meeting of the joint Commission for Border Line Establishing had taken place at the beginning of this month, although the Agreement on Normalization of The Relations read that it should have happened in May, 1996.Evaluating the meeting of the joint Commission as a 'media decorum' of Yugoslav Prime Minister Radoje Kontic's visit to Skopje, 'Kontinent' read that despite Kontic's statements that there were no open issues between the two parties an agreement on border line had not been signed, nor an agreement on a free-trade zone. [05] FIRM STANDS OF FRY ABOUT FORMER SFRY SUCCESSION'Makfax' agency reported the conclusion of the FR Yugoslav Government made at the last session that its stands regarding the succession of former Yugoslavia were justified and that it did not intend to revoke its demands not to connect the succession with the political and legal continuity of FR Yugoslavia. The Government accepted the report on the talks with succession issue mediator Sir Arthur Wots and concluded that an agreement must be made on legal basis only, which means that property dividing and the economic consequences of the succession must be resolved in the field of economy.After the talks with Sir Arthur Wots this month, the Yugoslav Government rejected his 'Memorandum for Understanding' and proposed its own document which insisted all that was left from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia to be referred to as a joint property for dividing, and not only the property from 1945 on. [06] DIPLOMATIC COUNCIL - A CONSULTATIVE ORGAN OF THE FOREIGN POLICYDiplomatic Council was formed at the Macedonian Foreign Ministry last Friday and its first consultative meeting was led by Foreign Affairs Minister Ljubomir Frchkovski, 'Vecer' daily read. The Council has 15 members of various professions: historians, free-lance intellectuals, diplomats, etc., and will be a consultative organ, i.e. a discussion club of the Minister with variable structure.According to Frchkovski, the Council had been formed in order to meet the needs for different opinions on issues important for the Macedonian foreign policy to be heard. The members will work on a voluntary basis and will not have a determined mandate. The first structure is made of: Emilija Simovska, Gojko Sekulovski, Sasho Ordanovski, Lazo Kitanovski, Vladimir Milchin, Ivan Katardziev, Jorgo Kjuka, Todor Atanasovski, Slobodan Chashule, Petar Chokrevski, Ivan Toshevski, Hisein Ramadani, Jovancho Donev, Bogomil Gjuzel and Naum Grizo. [07] $380 MILLION DEFICIT IN FOREIGN TRADE EXCHANGEYesterday's issue of 'Nova Makedonija' daily read that Macedonian deficit in the foreign trade exchange in the period January-July 1996 had been $380 million. The article further read that 57.9% of the import was covered with export in the same period of time, and that the total exchange was about $1.4 billion. Last year's deficit was twice lower, i.e. $141 million. According to the paper, Macedonian statisticians and economists had explained the deficit increasing with the fact that Macedonian exchange with Central and Eastern European countries had reduced. The greatest decrease (of 93%) had been noticed in the exchange with Ukraine, than with Bulgaria (88.6%) and with Russia (54.9%).In the period January-July 1996, most of the Macedonian export was done to the former Yugoslav republics - 39.1% and to the EU countries - 34.5%. The statistics data say that a 3,500 million denars worth turnover had been made in retail trade in the above mentioned period of time, and a 3,496 million denars worth one in the wholesale trade. Retail trade prices in July had decreased for 0.6% compared with those in June, and total cost of living for 1.3%. In June, 349,842 people were registered as employed, while 235,135 were unemployed. Average net salary in June was 8,762 denars. [08] FIRST STEP TOWARDS MODERN CUSTOMSThe mission of the Macedonian Customs Administration should be to demand customs payments, which would be good for the economy and development of the country. That would be achieved by effective work, giving public recognition for successfully done jobs, providing more effective informing, alleviation of trade, etc. These were the conclusions, as reported by the media, made at the seminar on a strategic plan for the development of Macedonian Customs Administration, held in Ohrid during the last few days.Certain conditions should be fulfilled prior to this, such as carrying out regulations established by the Administration itself, modernizing of the equipment, training the personnel, etc. The new Law on Customs Duties was estimated as a modern one and in accordance with the EU ones. World Customs Administration Secretary General James Shaver stressed in his report presented to the seminar participants that Macedonian Customs had made the first step towards modern customs, and that such an administration should be authorized to question, examine and punish according to certain standards. He added that this was the right time to realize these activities in Macedonia. [09] MACEDONIAN JOURNALISM TREATED THROUGH THE PRESENTATION OF INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCESThe professional journalism in mixed ethnic environments was the subject of the three-days long seminar that ended yesterday in Ohrid, which was attended by about 20 journalists of the press and electronic Macedonian media. The seminar had been organized under patronage of the Council of Europe, and with help of the International Federation of Journalists, the Coordinate Centre in Ljubljana and the 'Open Society of Macedonia' Institute.During the seminar, a number of initiatives were presented and opinions were exchanged on certain issues. According to 'Dnevnik' daily, d-r Ervan Frankal, an Executive Director of the organization 'Search for Joint Bases' (Macedonia has been its member since 1994), said that almost all participants were Macedonians and that due to the language, media in Macedonia were ethnically predetermined. Another seminar will start today in Ohrid on the legislation regarding the mass media. It has been organized by the Secretariat for Information with the Macedonian Government, and in cooperation with the Council of Europe (Media Department of the Human Rights Directorate). Several experts from the Council of Europe country members are expected to talk about this issue, as well as representatives of the media and of the institutions involved in this. The goal of this seminar is promotion of certain regulations and of experiences of developed democratic countries, which would help the designing of the media legislation in Macedonia. [10] OPPOSITION PARTIES STILL ASK FOR CHANGES IN THE LAW ON LOCAL ELECTIONSLiberal Party leader Stojan Andov, at a press conference held last Friday, informed the press that his party would participate independently at the local elections, but expressed his fear that voters might restrain from voting, for which 'the current government would be responsible, since it has been trying hardly to de-motivate the people'.'Vecer' read that Liberals had submitted a draft Decision for rules in media presentation to the Parliament last Friday, which they had asked to be supported by the opposition parties also. This party had informed the press that they would require the Law on Local Elections to be changed, and that they would call on the decision of Parliament President Tito Petkovski not to invite international monitors to the elections to be changed also. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party had submitted an initiative to the Constitutional Court to establish whether the rule referring to the irrevocable nominations of candidates before the second voting round is justified. They had also asked from the Constitutional Court, according to 'Vecer', to ban the applying of this rule until it makes the decision. According to this party, this entry was included in the Law 'because of clear utilitarian political calculations of the ruling coalition, led by SDSM'. It was also stated that the Law on Local Elections was in 'an unbearable and not understandable clash with some other regulations of the Constitution and other Laws'. This mostly refers to the fact that all officials in the country 'from the Head of State to those in the municipal councils can resign'. According to Democratic Party, it is absurd for somebody who has still not been appointed to a position not to be given the right to withdraw if an already appointed one can do the same. [11] MAAK-CP WELCOMES A COALITION WITH VMRO-DPMNE AND DP'MAAK-Conservative Party will participate in the local elections and will welcome coalitions with VMRO-DPMNE and DP,' this party representatives informed the press last Saturday. According to 'Nova Makedonija', they also reported that MAAK-CP would not allow their Tetovo and Gostivar branches to decide independently whether they would or not participate in the local elections.At this party's press conference, an initiative of Todor Petrov, the World Macedonian Congress President, had been presented to introduce a new Article (80-a) in the Law on Local Self Government, regarding the number of municipal councils members. As alleged, this was important due to conditions which do not state the number of population in the newly established municipalities. MILS SUPPLEMENT[12] 'Over DM 80 Million Inflow from January till September'('Nova Makedonija', 22 September, 1996)The financial effect of the privatization carried out up to date is DM 141 million. During the first two years of the transformation process (1994_95), most of the assets were gained from payments of shares of previous privatization processes (e.g.: payment of contributions and taxes on internal shares, according to Ante Markovic's law). Those were over DM 36 million worth incomes, while the rest DM 105 million were won from selling the enterprises. The Privatization Agency had the greatest inflow (over DM 80 million) during the last eight months, i.e. since the beginning of this year. According to Ms. Verica Hadzi-Vasileva Markovska, the Privatization Agency Director, privatized enterprises have been paying their obligations more intensively (even too early) during September. Most of them were big firms, but there were some small ones, as well. Director Markovska said their aim was to be able to use the advantages of shares, mostly to realize dividends, as soon as possible. Also, the Agency owns priority shares, and the Law on Privatization entitles it to decide about certain activities of enterprises. Therefore, the enterprises become more independent after they make the payments and the total dividend is used by share-holders, instead of part of it to be paid to the Agency. The early payments by enterprises were encouraged also by banks, which have been issuing governmental bonds under favourable conditions agreed on with the banks. Thus, the enterprises become debtors not to the Agency, but to banks. This is supported also by the means paid: over DM 37 million from enterprises sale were paid with bonds and over DM 27 million were from the 'frozen' foreign currencies assets. Only DM 1,6 million were paid in cash, mostly by foreign investors who lately bought shares of Macedonian tobacco companies. 'The over DM 80 million paid in September showed that we are coming closer to our estimations to have annual income of about DM 100 million from the privatization,' Markovska said. 'Taking into account that 856 enterprises have already been privatized (of DM 2 billion estimated value) and that they have about DM 800 million social capital to be paid in five to seven years, the expected income from the privatization is about DM 100 million.' (end)mils news 23 September, 1996Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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