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MILS: News from the FYROM, 97-03-25Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: "Macedonian Information Liaison Service" <mils@mils.spic.org.mk>CONTENTS
MILS SUPPLEMENTMILS NEWSSkopje, 25 March 1997[01] THE CHIEF OF NATO IN MACEDONIAThe NATO Secretary General, Xavier Solana, accompanied by the military commander of the Alliance, Gorge Gulvan, yesterday started his 2 days visit to Macedonia by having talks with the Macedonian Chief of State, Kiro Gligorov. The Macedonian Television reports that they have examined the military- political dimension of the collaboration between Macedonia and NATO placing an accent on the issues regarding formation of the Atlantic Council of `Partnership for Peace'. At the meeting agreement was expressed on the achieved level of compatibility which is included in the individual program of Macedonia for admittance in the NATO. The situation in the region was also discussed by placing accent on the events in Albania.At it is pointed out in the announcement from the president's cabinet, yesterday's talks once more reaffirmed the determination of Macedonia to be admitted in the NATO. President Gligorov has assessed Solana's visit as a step further which gives support to this orientation of the Macedonian Government, reminding that such determination has its base in the Declaration of the Macedonian Parliament for Joining the NATO, which has been adopted few years ago. In the talks with the Prime Minister, Branko Crvenkovski, the Foreign Affairs Minister, Ljubomir Frchkovski and the Defense Minister, Blagoj Handziski the individual program of Macedonia for partnership with the Alliance has been discussed as well as the compatibility of the ARM with the NATO. The Macedonian representatives at the meetings have affirmed their proposal on formation an Atlantic Council for Partnership which will include the countries from the `Partnership for Peace'. The Atlantic Council, according to the proposal made by the Macedonian representatives, would include the security structures at a higher level and it would not mean replacement of the `Partnership for Peace', instead it would be a preparation for membership having full rights. It has been mutually assessed that the established collaboration between Macedonia and NATO within the frames of the `Partnership for Peace' has been successfully developing. Xavier Solana once more underlined that the Alliance as an organization remains open to admit new members in a continuing process. This visit made by Solana to Macedonia has been arranged after several previous invitations and delays. The Macedonian diplomatic circles have assessed this meeting as highly important especially due to the timing, because at the June Summit of NATO it is expected that the way of candidacy examination for membership of new states to the Alliance will be announced. [02] PREPARATION FOR THE `SAVIOR 97' TRAINING WHICH IS IN MAYIn Skopje yesterday began the main planning conference for the multinational `Savior 97' training which within the frames of the NATO program `Partnership for Peace' will be taking place in the Republic of Macedonia in the first half of May on the Krivolak proving ground. The `Savior 97' training in May will in fact have its continuation of last year's commanding-headquarters meeting in Ohrid which was held under the same title. As it has been informed at yesterday' s conference, for participating in this training with military troops and commanding structures have been invited nine member - states of NATO and the `Partnership for Peace' - the USA, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania, as well as onlookers from Hungary, Poland and Bohemia. At Skopje's preparing conference, according to the Macedonian Radio, Albania and Greece do not participate. The Albanian delegation did not participate due to the current events in that state while unofficially in has been informed that the representatives from Greece will take part in the final conference planned for April this year.Otherwise the participants at the meeting in Skopje will examine the final details regarding the training which will take place under Macedonian- American leadership. At the training an earthquake and technical damages in a chemical factory will be simulated. The goal of the training is mutual acquaintance of the armies, i.e. of the organization and the equipment of their forces for special purposes. The aim of all this is to enable greater efficiency in the organization of the regional- multinational co-working for giving aid and saving people as well as material values under conditions such as natural disasters and technical damages. [03] POSITIVE EXPERIENCES OF UNPREDEP ACTIVITIES EMPHASIZEDThe Macedonian Chief of State, Kiro Gligorov, in Skopje yesterday had talks with the American congressman, John Mutra. In the context of the current events in the region and the situation in Albania emphasis have been placed on the positive experiences from the performances of the peace forces of the UN in Macedonia. In the talks, according to an official announcement from the meeting, the American congressman has confirmed the interest of the USA in the region stability, stressing the positive influence on that field which the Republic of Macedonia has made with its peace policy.[04] ON 8TH APRIL SKOPJE HOST TO THE INITIATIVE FOR WELLNEIGHBOURLINESS OF THE SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE STATESOn 8 April Skopje will be the host of the initiative for wellneigbourlines and stability of the South-Eastern European states known as Rojomanic initiative. Within the activities of this purely political initiative whose bearer is the EU, according to the Macedonian Radio, it is expected that high diplomatic representatives of the EU will take part as well as representatives from the ministries for Foreign Affairs of the states from South- Eastern Europe.[05] EU GIVES PRIORITY TO FINANCING INFRASTRUCTURAL PROJECTSThese days in the Republic of Macedonia there was a visiting 3 member mission of the European Investment Bank from Luxembourg which, according to the Macedonian Television, had talks with the Macedonian authorities regarding conducting the finance protocol between the Government and the European Union for financing the infrastructure in the state. Besides meetings with Government representatives there were also intensive talks in the Fund for regional and main roads regarding the realization of the finance protocol with the EU by the year 2.000. A special interest was shown for the Gradsko- Gevgelija road which is 78 km. long (the building of which has cost 202 million dollars), the Skopje-Tetovo section (965 million) and the highway Veles-Prilep (110 million dollars).In Macedonia starting from yesterday until 29 March there will be a mission of the International Bank from Washington which will get acquainted with the project from the field of infrastructure. It is expected that the mission will have talks in the Public company `Macedonian Railways', in the Fund for Roads as well as in the Customs Administration of Macedonia. [06] NEGOTIATIONS WITH CROATIA ON A FREE COMMERCE ZONEIn Skopje today commenced the second round of negotiations with Croatia regarding the agreement on free commerce, reports `Dnevnik'. According to the assessments this agreements should be signed by the end of the summer this year. At the first meeting held last year in Zagreb there was a suggestion that quotes on the agricultural products should be determined as basis for the agreement with a total custom taxes on concession lists, while for the industrial products a tax of 1% has been accepted.Otherwise Macedonia has had up till now agreements on free commerce signed with SR Yugoslavia and Slovenia. [07] MACEDONIAN DEBT TOWARDS THE LONDON CLUB OF TRUSTEES REDUCEDDuring yesterday's regular session the Macedonian Government was informed of the ongoing preparations for the future reduction of the debt which Macedonia owes to the London Club, i.e. to the foreign commercial banks which should be achieved by emission of new drawees on part of the state amounting up to 228,7 million dollars.By this, as it has been concluded, the foreign debt of Macedonia will be reduced to 415 million dollars and this will present a great relief to the state economy. For this purpose the Government has authorized Vice- president, Ljube Trpevski, and Finance Minister, Taki Fiti, to sign the necessary documents at the meeting in London which is to be held today and tomorrow. According to the report from the session the Government yesterday has established the proposal for passing a bill on insurance which has as basic principles the building and maintenance of a stable insurance system and autonomous structure of the relations with the insurance companies. [08] TODAY IN PARLIAMENT VOTING FOR GOVERNMENT TRUSTAs it has been announced, the Macedonian Parliament today should have its 65th session at which the only item on the agenda is the voting for Government trust demanded by Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski. The media remind, that this will be the third voting for trust for the cabinet of Prime Minister Crvenkovski, but is the first in this composition. Until now the question of Government trust was raised by parliament members, it was thus for the Government of Nikola Kljusev and for the major compositions of the governments of Crvenkovski. Solution for the trust issue otherwise, according to the Constitution must be brought by the end of the third day after the demand has been submitted and in this case the third day is today at midnight. The Constitution also regulates that there is voting for mistrust instead of trust and the decision on voting for mistrust of the Government can be made with the majority votes of the total number of parliament members.[09] AT THE MOMENT THE `TAT' MORTGAGES ARE CLEARING OUTThe last few days in the General Court in Bitola continued the investigation activities against the arrested manager and owner of the `TAT' bank from Bitola, Sonja Nikolovska, as well as against other persons engaged in the affair. According to the Macedonia media, these days in the centre of the investigations are the mortgages on the real estate of the bank. Until now there have been 489 unregistered mortgages the value of which is 60 million DM. The `TAT' bank also possesses mortgages in Skopje, Prilep, Resen and several other towns in the state. According to `Vecher', regarding the mortgages 104 cases are at the moment in the phase of realization , while 23 have already been solved. Among other there are mentioned the objects of `Promet', the silk factory `Ilinden' from Bitola, `Market', `Jugotutun', `Mokel', and others. Besides Bitola where are most of the damaged citizens Prilep is mentioned as well which has about 3.000 depositors in the `TAT' bank.`Vecher' reports today that around 25kg. of gold, diamonds and other valuable objects have been found by Sonja Nikolovska. On part of the clients as well as the defense of Sonja Nikolovska it is demanded that she should be present at the revision and to help in decoding the codes. For now he remains under custody and as alleged the supervisor of the NBM, Gazmend Kadriu announced yesterday that Nikolovska will be called to take part in the revision. [10] THE FIRST CONTINGENT OF LAMB IN MACEDONIA GOES TO JORDANToday the firm `Stokopromet' from Skopje should export to Jordan the first 40 tons of lamb which is the first amount that Macedonia is sending on a foreign market. As the Macedonian media report, there are no sanitary- veterinarian impediments for the export of the lambs, but the necessary documents which should be sent to one of the embassies of Jordan in Athens and Sophia are very complicated. The price for which this contingent will be exported from Macedonia this year amounts up to 2.500 dollars per ton which is lower for 50% compared to the prices in the countries of the EU. For the Macedonian meat-packing industry these price which otherwise stands for all states from the Arabic world is hardly accessible, but as it is assessed this is better than to keep the lambs indoors. For now there is no answer from the EU for any eventual removal of the ban on import of the contingent of 1.700 tons of lamb from Macedonia which was placed due to last years diseases of foot rot. In Macedonia the purchase prices on lamb move from 50 to 60 denars (about 2 DM) per kilo which is estimated as an awfully low price. According to the assessments of the cattle breeders the difficult situation in this field will only partly be overcome with the export of meat in the countries of the Arabic world.[11] 2.000 TONS OF WHEAT FROM MACEDONIA TO BULGARIAThe `Makpres' agency reports that Macedonia will send 2.000 tons of wheat to Bulgaria as humanitarian aid. This has been announced at the meeting between the Labor and Social Policy Minister of Bulgaria, Ivan Najkov and the Macedonian ambassador in Sofia, Gjorgji Spasov. On the proposal of the Macedonian ambassador the help will be send in the Pirin Macedonia. This has been explained with the fact that this part of Bulgaria is not a producer of wheat and due to the fact that in Blagoevgrad, Bansko, Sandanski and Petrice there is the greatest want for wheat.[12] RICH PROGRAM FOR THE SECOND WORLD MEETING OF THE CHILDREN REFUGEES FROM THE AEGEAN PART OF MACEDONIAThe second world meeting of the children refugees from the Aegean part of Macedonia will be held from 15th to 19 th July 1998 in Skopje. This has been decided at yesterday's session of the Association of the Children Refugees from the Aegean Part of Macedonia in which also participated representatives from associations from Canada, Australia and several states from Europe. At the meeting, which coincides with the 50th anniversary from the evacuation of the children from the Aegean part of Macedonia, there will be a Solemn Academy, international symposium on the topic `Refugees on the Balkans', international exhibition on theme `Refugees', exhibition of photos on theme `50 years since the exodus', premiere of the film `The evil ghosts of the past', and a monograph book under the title `50 years since the exodus' will be published, as well as a special post stamp with the motive from the exodus. There will also be organized outings for the children's homes where the children refugees had been staying, visit to several towns in Greece as well as putting up a memorial park for the fallen soldiers from the Aegean part of Macedonia in the period 1941- 49. Sponsor of the manifestation, as it has been announced, will be the President of the State, Kiro Gligorov.[13] ALL CLERGYMEN FROM AUSTRALIA IN SKOPJEThe decision of the metropolitan Petar that all clergymen of the Macedonian orthodox church from Australia (about 20) should come to Skopje has caused a chaos in the Macedonian community in Australia, writes `Dnevnik' reporting the announcement of the movement of the loyal church municipalities from Australia.As it is assessed during the visit of the clergymen in Skopje, the Macedonians in Australia will have no one to perform church rites regarding funerals, weddings, christenings etc. Due to this, as well as due to the high expenses for the clergymen's stay in Skopje (about 60.000 dollars) the Movement of the loyal municipalities from Australia express their concern due to such a decision of the metropolitan Petar and call the holy archpriest synod to stop this chaos caused by a number of clergymen and the metropolitan Petar. MILS SUPPLEMENT[14] `Vision of wishes - with no money'(`Vecher', 24 March, 1997)The round table held on the topic `The Energetics Sector in the National Strategy for Economic Development of Macedonia', which has recently been held in the Macedonian Academy of Arts and Sciences (MAAS) has opened many issues and dilemmas regarding the whole text offered by energetics experts who prepared the text from the Mining, the Mechanical, the Electrical Engineering Faculty and the Geological Institute, but also by authorities from production and distribution firms. Although, frankly speaking, the experts who prepared the text had little time to elaborate this document and they have been criticised for protecting the realisation of certain strategic interests through the development of a new reconstruction of the existing energetic objects with out any clear vision of where from would they supply the finances necessary for their realisation. Thus, according to Kiril Popovski from the Electrical Engineering Faculty from Bitola, till the year 2000 the electrical energetics sector will have the need of 7 billion dollars (3,5 billion for the hydro- and thermo capacities) which are objectively unattainable taking into consideration the ongoing dynamics of procuring foreign donations which are usually measured with millions and not billions of dollars. In this sense there pops out he question on lucrativeness of the gas system if it is to be built. The lucrativeness of this system is taken into account now, when 60 million dollars have already been invested in it, so the solution is sought in the wider consumption which also does not give any certainty that the situation will be improved. Borche Andreevski from REK `Bitola' considers that not even the building of another (fourth) block within this plant will lead to any solution because there are indicators which show that this country has deficit of coal for the existent capacities and it has even less for new ones, it has been cited in the document. Not to mention that the existent mining beds will most probably be exhausted until the year 2015. The strategy defines the new beds which are not thoroughly examined. Besides, opening of a new mine requires at least a period of 5 years as well as means of about 200 million dollars. According to Predrag Popovski who is from the Electrical Engineering Faculty in Bitola, this conclusion can also be made regarding the intention of opening a new block for petroleum jelly in the TEC `Negotino', especially if it is taken into consideration that each kilowatt produced in such a plant costs over 5 cents. Acceptable is only the building of a new gas power station in Skopje in the case of which there is a need of large finance means for the equipment. The market of oil derivatives is another problem. In the strategy it is stated that Macedonia may come to a situation when it will export white derivatives which according to energetics scientists is a nonsense since even today it is pointed out that a new tank of such derivatives has been imported. Yet it seems that a larger engagement is necessary to lobby the building of the oil pipeline Skopje-Thessaloniki. At it has been pointed out by Julija Ristich from the refinery OKTA, for Macedonia it is much better to create a clear strategy for the following year rather than to create an imprecise `list of wishes' for a long running period. OKTA has already lived through an unplanned production disruption and there is no guarantee that this may not happen again. In fact, it remains unclear what quantities of oil, gas or electric power will Macedonia need in the following 2 decades. An increase of consumption is predicted for the oil derivatives and the electric power ( twice in the case of electricity) but according to the energetics experts the data upon which all this has been established are disputable because the increase of the gross production can not be predicted (especially not in the electo-metalurgy and other large capacities and systems). The offered working version of the Strategy, among other, can be considered as an attempt to enliven all authorised factors in the state which are expected to face the problems in the sphere of energetics more seriously. Those who are well aquatinted with this activity fear that the situations within the energetics will be left to develop on their own until the moment when the only possible solution for overcoming the problems will become the building of a nuclear plant. The experts who prepared this document are regarded `behind the screen' as fighters for building of a nuclear plant although they have never publicly declared themselves as being such except the academician Tome Boshevski. It is unnecessary to explain what would this nuclear plant mean to Macedonia from ecological point of view. It is only necessary to follow the working of Kozloduj or the damage that has recently been done by a Japanese nuclear plant. The fact that there is no suitable area in this country where the nuclear wastes will be disposed is just an additional problem. (end)mils news 25 March, 1997Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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