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MILS: News from the FYROM, 97-08-26Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: "Macedonian Information Liaison Service" <mils@mils.spic.org.mk>CONTENTS
MILS SUPPLEMENTMILS NEWSSkopje, 26 August, 1997[01] GLIGOROV-CLARK: `NATO COOPERATION FOR PEACE IN THE REGION'USEUCOM and European NATO Forces CINC Gen. Wesley Clark has paid a one-day visit to Macedonia, which included a meeting with President Gligorov. The Presidential Cabinet revealed that talks focused on the role of NATO in securing and preserving peace in the region, as well as on the need to retain UN peacekeeping forces at the country's borders in order to achieve this objective. Other key issues were: the cooperation between NATO and the Republic of Macedonia within the `PFP' Programme and the `Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council'; current conditions and endeavours to integrate Macedonia within NATO; the intensifying of cooperation with several NATO members - esp. the US.Gen. Clark placed particular emphasis on the positive quality of cooperation between NATO and Macedonia whose gradual upgrading will bring the country closer to structures of the Treaty Organisation, and thus a concrete contribution to stability and peace in the region. In this sense the US General advocated the further development of cooperation in the defense sector. This meeting has also been attended by Foreign Secretary Blagoj Handzhiski, Defense Secretary Lazar Kitanovski, and ARM HQ Chief-of-Staff Gen. Trajche Krstevski. What followed was Clark's visit to the `UNPREDEP' HQ and the US troops serving within this mission. [02] `NO TERRITORIAL ASPIRATIONS'....are being nurtured by Bulgaria towards Macedonia - claimed Bulgarian Foreign Secretary Nadezhda Mihaylova in an interview for `24 Chasa' yesterday. In connection to the language-issue, `Makfax' reports, Mihaylova restated the well-known position of Sofia: `Bulgaria has proposed nine options to address this matter, now its Macedonia's turn to meet us halfway.'[03] `BAPTISM NEXT YEAR'Or to be more precise: the name-issue - concordant to the coverage of Greek conservative paper `Katimerini' - with Skopje will definitely be brought to a close by the middle of next year. `Makfax' reports that PM Costas Simitis is being quoted with a statement given during a session of the Political Secretariat of incumbent PASOK. Thus once the UN Security Council has passed a decision regarding the name matters are to be settled. Mediator Cyrus Vance - it is being rumoured - is to resign from his mandate at the beginning of 1998, while proposing the reference `Republic of Skopje - Macedonia.'[04] CULTURAL COOPERATION - PART DEUX`Greece and FYROM are to exchange theatre productions, performances and findings from archeological expeditions within a permanent and systematic cultural cooperation programme', the Athenian press reports these days. `Makfax' reveals this to be a joint decision passed by Culture Ministers Evangelos Venizelos and Slobodan Unkovski at Lerin. `Greece embodies a gate to Europe for us, relations between both countries are solid and borders could function as a symbolic division between both nations', stated Unkovski on this occasion. According to the Greek press Venizelos seriously considered the possibility of visiting Skopje in order to advance cultural relations between Greece and FYROM.[05] MAYOR IN MACEDONIAUpon invitation of President Gligorov the UNESCO Secretary- General Frederico Mayor is to visit Macedonia from 27th to 29th August. In addition to his host, Mayor will be received by PM Crvenkovski, Culture Minister Slobodan Unkovski, Foreign Secretary Blagoj Handzhiski, Education Minister Sofija Todorova and by the Minister of Civil Engineering, Urbanism and Environmental Protection Tome Trombev. The UNESCO Secretary-General will also visit the Macedonian Academy of Science and Art and attend the opening of the `Struga Poetry Evenings.' The visit is also o be marked by the signing of a cooperation memorandum between UNESCO and Macedonia.[06] MACEDONIAN BUSINESS DELEGATION IN TURKEYA Macedonian delegation headed by Economy Minister Boris Rikalovski has been staying in the Republic of Turkey as of yesterday, upon invitation of Turkish Industry and Trade Minister Ali Riza Genil. The delegation is to attend the opening of the International Fair at Izmir in addition to several bilateral meetings with Ministers from other countries at this event. During this visit, Rikalovski will also have a separate meeting with his host, in order to discuss bilateral economic cooperation and the work of the joint Turkish-Macedonian Commission.[07] THINGS ARE BACK TO NORMAL.......at the border towards Albania as of yesterday. Thus customs formalities, for Macedonian or transit goods alike, will only be provided at the `Kjafasan' border checkpoint, according to the Customs Services HQ. This suspends the previous agreement between the customs services of both countries on rendering temporary aid to the Albanian side (effectuated on 15th may this year).[08] `BACK TO WORK'Is the motto for the Macedonian Parliament after this year's summer recess. Tomorrow at the sequel to the 74th session MPs are to debate information supplied by the Ministry of the Interior on the current state of affairs at Gostivar and Tetovo.[09] SOCIAL PROTECTION ACT OUTLINEDDuring yesterday's regular session of the Macedonian Govt., MTV reports, the key issue was the draft-version of the Social Protection Act. Labour and Social Policy Minister Naser Ziberi assessed the same as compliant to international standards, as it provides the option of extra-institutional care for individuals requiring social protection; the preventive operating of structures and institutions; the settling of children without parental care in foster- families and the right of the latter to establish a relation of employment with Social Work Centers. Other novelties incl. the right of employed parents with disabled children to receive benefits by the Social Work Centers, a new governance method in social protection facilities, and the introducing of domestic and international private parties to establish social facilities.The draft-version does not delve into the dissolving of the Mothers' Home (`Majchin Dom') an issue which has been fiercely debated in the past. Minister Ziberi that the social protection network would be outlined by a discrete programme to be passed by the Govt. [10] QADI TO DECIDE ON JOB POLICYThe Federation of Trade Union Organisations of Macedonia (SSM) has announced its intention to lodge a complaint with the Constitutional Court of Macedonia in connection to certain provisions within the Employment and Insurance Act. A-1 TV reports that this particularly referred to the possibility of filling a vacancy without placing an advertisement, as this was a violation of the Constitutional right of every worker to be familiarized with the demands of the labour market in the country.[11] THE MISSION: `STRENGTHENING THE BANKING AND MONETARY SYSTEM'....the `few good men' chosen to work on this miracle for a year (with the possibility of another 1-2 year extension): the staff of the Macedonian Banking Operations Centre. This USAID-funded project has made it its goal to assist Macedonian financial institutions, particularly banks and savings houses, in their striving for excellence and efficiency. Such has been the agreement reached by USAID representative Stefan Zadek, `MBOC' Head Bruce Bjoernson and NBM Governor Ljube Trpevski yesterday. The project is to provide training and equipment for different domains within the banking sector in order to strengthen the banking and monetary system in the country, stabilize savings and direct it into greater investment influx. Governor Trpevski welcomed this initiative, while stressing that `MBOC' operations should be coordinated with NBM experts.[12] SUMMER SALES: A BUSINESS BETWEEN 500 AND 1 000 DM`Nova Makedonija' is drawing the public's attention to a recent massive trend in Macedonia: the selling of businesses. The offer is that abundant that average price rates vary between 500 and 1 000 DM. This is being ascribed to the achieving of the `critical amendment mass' by changes introduced with respect to accounting and setting up commercial associations. In practice the snowball started rolling on 6th July 1996, upon the codification of an compulsory 10 000 DM (in denars) founding deposit. In addition to this businesses have been burdened with a multitude of other additional expenses complicating their functioning, such as a 6 000 denar fee for advertising your premises, the unconditional forwarding of payroll contributions over staff pay, etc.As most of the businesses are small and dating back to the time of the SFRY (established with a deposit of 70 denars), businesses which are barely yielding some profit while at least 250 DM are necessary to make the state happy. Ergo most owners decide to sell. On the other side you have upstart businessmen who prefer buying a firm for 500 to 1 000 DM to paying a deposit of 10 000 DM, even if this means another the spending of another 500 DM to change the base, the founder registration, etc. Afterwards its `full speed ahead'...Thus businesses with a neutral/positive balance or a minimum of debts go under the hammer. At present there are app. 90 000 businesses in Macedonia, but some indicators raise the question whether even one- third of them are still active. Particularly when one bears in mind that at the `minimum founding deposit age' one person would open up three to four businesses. [13] `TRUCKIE' BLOCKADE PREVENTEDThe announced warning protest by members of the Independent Trade Union Organisation of Truck Drivers of Macedonia (`Makamatrans') and the Association of Private Transporters from Bitola - which was due to be staged at the `Medzhitlija' border checkpoint (Macedonian-Greek border) in the morning hours yesterday - was prevented by the police. Thus protesters were obstructed from blocking the M-5, as drivers had been forced to park their vehicles at Bitola, while the police was `doing its job' and ensuring that traffic would not be impeded towards the expected arrival of 90 lorries of sugar for the Bitola refinery. Protest organizers stated that app. 80 trucks had been heading towards the border. of these the police detained some at Bitola while other were returned. It was also said that the protest would only be prolonged but not cancelled by such methods.[14] MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING?In spite of the fact that there have been several leads as regards the investigation into the bomb explosion in front of the premises of the `Inter-Falco' car dealer past Sunday - so far results have been close to nothing. The only thing certain so far is that there are no suspects and that the bomb was designed to frighten but not harm. Company owner Zlatko Sokolikj discarded the possibility that this may have been a terrorist attack targetted at / linked to himself, his family or his business. As the latter did not give rise to any criminal activity, Sokolikj denoted it as strange that a bomb should explode in front of the only object housing a dept. of the company but not in its ownership. The premises had been rented from `Zhito Skopje.' Should this have been threat it would have been logical to chose a more prestigious facility than the car dealer, which was opened one month ago and sells vehicles of Italian manufacturer `Fiat.'MILS SUPPLEMENT[15] `Industry and Mining Topping the Charts'(`Nova Makedonija - 25th August 1997)Over the first half of this year the Macedonian economy has generated 9.7 billion denars (over 320 million DM) in losses. Compared to the same time span in 1996 - this adds one more billion denars (i.e. 35 million DM) to our total negative balance. In spite of these and other evidently unfavourable indicators to the country's economic condition, experts within the Payment Flow Institute nevertheless claim that the `downward roller-coaster' has been stopped and that `things are getting better. The answer to this could be `yes' if one considers that the rate at which our debts used to grow has slowed down, esp. in correlation to generated revenue i.e. profits within the economic sector. Businesses achieving negative financial outcomes employ 153 789 or almost one half of all workers employed at loss- generating enterprises. Of the latter 19 480 (app. 68%) have been registered over the first six months of 1997, but only 165 are actual businesses with a `loss-share' of over 10 million denars each. In 1996 there have been 243 businesses of the same kind - ergo event this trend is marked by stagnation. The least favourable results have been achieved at the most significant economic sectors: industry and mining, since they comprise over 43% (3.95 billion denars) of all generated losses. The following slots are occupied by trade (2 billion denars), agriculture, fishing and construction. From a perspective of company ownership `the good and the bad' are easily kept apart. Most of the latter are small businesses in private ownership - in spite of the fact that 47.5% (4.6 billion denars) of all losses have been `produced' by nationally-owned companies or joint ventures. Privatized businesses generated 3.3 billion denars in losses - an increase compared to last year. Staff of the Payment Flow Institute attributes this to the fact that their category has been `reinforced' by the `25 big ones' (loss- makers) in the country, for whose transformation a separate programme had been designed. As a result of this these businesses have been privatized last year, but took their `negative financial track record' with them. In spite of privatization and a change of governance (usually major creditors, banks, the state or major companies), it will take more time before these businesses do get back on their own two feet. The smallest percentage of loss has been generated by private enterprises which have been privately-owned since their establishment. Their negative balance amounts to a mere 1.7 billion denars i.e. almost 58 million DM, which again represents more than last year's total. It is nevertheless indicative to the fact that both the private and the state sector have been confronted with the same working conditions and the same problems - coping to the same extent. The analysis compiled by the Payment Flow Institute also reveals in which cities across the country (usually those with a concentrated amount of industrial and commercial capacities) most of the losses are being created. Ergo this chart list is being topped by Skopje (over 4 billion denars), followed by Tetovo (558 million denars), Bitola (496 million denars) and Shtip (401 million denars). The `small loss-fish' were being fried at the municipalities of Kratovo, Debar and Valandovo. [16] `No Privileges But Faster Procedures'(`Dnevnik' - 25th August 1997)The draft-bill on customs duties is compatible to EU provisions as its experts have had a considerable share in compiling it. Their main objection in the past has been that the Act on Customs HQ and Customs Procedures was not streamlined enough and too concerned with operative measures. This new version merely provides general legal provisions, while subsequent acts and regulations are to set down the details. `Depending on their relevance, these additional acts are to be passed by the Govt., the Minister of Finance and the Customs HQ Director', states Shaban Zendeli, Deputy Director of the Customs Services HQ. According to the new draft all privileges granted to those emigrants returning to Macedonia are to be `no more': this will incl. the importing of goods worth up to 1 600 DM on their vacation; or the import of 16 000 DM in households effects upon their permanent settling in Macedonia. This will also be hard blow to private business-owners who will no longer be allowed to import equipment worth up to 49 000 DM. Duty-free shopping sprees of up to 60 DM will also have to be abandoned in the future, concordant to international standards. Thus merely hand luggage and normal quantities of medicine will escape the omnipotent fiscus. Secondary acts are also to determine which Ministry may import what and how much of it without paying duty. So far this privilege had been granted to all state institutions, thus allowing for refurbishing frenzies `on the house.' This list of future favourites is to be compiled by the Govt., the Ministry of Finance (covering the business sector, NGOs and humanitarian organisations). In spite of the fact that recently Article 53 (regulating export-conditioned import) had been suspended, we are witnessing its `second coming' by the name `customs procedures with economic impact', the latter being storage, processing supervision, temporary goods import and export for the purpose of finishing the product - all a courtesy of the customs services and based upon expert opinion. `The key novelty in this version of the law is the selective categorization of goods which is to speed up processing at the border. At present each vehicle, lorry and traveller have to be checked, but in the future species will be selected at random order - by the computer or the customs officer. The introduction of computer systems in all fields is also a novelty, all documents are to be entered and other branches will be able to access them. This - in the opinion of Zendeli - will facilitate the paying of customs duty further. Though the Ministry of Finance is to head this operation, the Customs Services HQ will retain its independent character in practice. Customs officers will also be entitled to carry a sidearm, to be used in cases of self- defense or if illegal entering is not to be prevented otherwise. In addition to this, customs officers will not only be allowed to conduct controls/searches at border checkpoints or the border area, but also in the interior of the country e.g. at companies suspected of importing goods when there is substantial evidence - even without the police present. Up to now a customs officer could merely report a case to the police but not see it through to the end - or testify at court in connection to it. (end.)mils news 26 August, 1997Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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