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Albanian Times, Vol. I, No. 8, December 3, 1995From: Albanian Times <AlbaTimes@aol.com>The Albanian Times (by AlbAmerica TRade & Consulting International) DirectoryIn this issue:CONTENTS[1] Albanian Telecommunications Move to Privatization[2] Albania: 61 percent of Property in Private Hands[3] $2 million in U.S Weapons Money for Albania[4] Bad Weather Ends U-S Marines Mission in Albania[5] Gore Warns Balkan Turmoil if U-S Balks[6] Ministers to Reflect on Balkan Peace[7] Albania to Accelerate Oil and Gas Exploration[8] Two Albanian Migrants Dead, 16 Missing in Sea[9] Greek Minister Predicts More Growth for 1996[10] Greek Premier's Illness Causes Stocks to Fall[11] Polls Favor Greek Defense Minister as Successor[12] British Investments in Albania Grow[13] Remittances from Emigrants Seen as Critical[14] Albanian Police Confiscates Forged Money[15] Fountain Oil Announces Operating Results for FY 1995[16] E-U Faces Tough Task on Bosnia Aid[17] Albania and U.S. Form the Weirdest Military Relationship[1] Albanian Telecommunications Move to PrivatizationAlbanian parliament is considering a partial privatization of the country's telecommunications. A bill presented to the lawmakers calls for establishing a single administrative body which would handle the relations between the providers and the state. Lawmakers are demanding that the government maintain the right to remove a provider's licence when its activities threaten national interests. The bill requires the future providers to guarantee the freedom and privacy of communication. It also sets the standards on who may become a service provider. According to the present bill, anyone may install public telephones operated by coins, credit cards or phone cards in agreement with the provider. (November 23)
[2] Albania: 61 percent of Property in Private HandsAbout 61 percent of all property in Albania is in private hands, newspaper Republika reported on November 21, referring to government sources. The number of active private firms is more than 60 thousands, the report says. In October 1995, private companies based in capital Tirana, accounted for 25 percent of all private activity in the country. A further 38 percent of private firms operate in the districts of Durres, Elbasan, Fier, Korca, Shkodra and Vlora. According to statistics, private enterprises employ about 237,000 people, although the figure may be higher due to lack of legislation to provide for accurate registration. Since trade and services dominate in Albania, about 73 percent of newly created enterprises have only one employee. According to a government study, 55 percent of private enterprises operate in retail trade and control 58 percent of the total capital flow. The year 1995 marked the emergence of the first companies emplying more than 100 workers, which now total about 80. Two companies have more than 5,000 employees.
[3] $2 million in U.S Weapons Money for AlbaniaAlbania is slated to become the first state in the former Eastern Bloc to buy weapons from the United States, the Washington Post reported on November 21. The Pentagon has earmarked $2 million in its 1996 budget to help Albania purchase two TOW antitank systems and five Vulcan antiaircraft weapons. U.S. military aid to Albania has run the gamut from more than 150 used vehicles to a 500-bed field hospital and a shipment of army underwear. Plans next year are for several T-37 jet trainers and two patrol boats to be thrown in free. U.S. spy planes from the Defense Department and the CIA have used Albanian bases free of charge since early 1994 for reconnaissance missions over the former Yugoslavia. An American Coast Guard captain helped draft Albania's maritime law. Defense Mapping Agency experts are sketching its seas.
[4] Bad Weather Ends U-S Marines Mission in AlbaniaSnowstorms forced U.S. Marines to call off training in the isolated mountains of northern Albania Friday and it was not known whether they would head to Bosnia, Reuters reported on December 1. Military attache Cmdr. Dennis Fox, asked if the troops had called off the exercises three days early to head for Bosnia, said: ``We are not aware of any change in orders. This is strictly a safety precaution.'' Fox said helicopters had begun shuttling the Marines from Fushe Gure, about a mile above sea level in the rugged mountains to the U.S. ships, Wasp, Shreverport and Whidby Island, off the Albanian coast. Despite their isolation, some locals had heard of the peace accord initialed in Dayton, Ohio. One hut had a satellite dish propped precariously on its wooden roof. The Marines' early departure will disappoint budding entrepreneurs who had hoped to boost their meager incomes by selling the local brandy, raki.
[5] Gore Warns Balkan Turmoil if U-S BalksThe United States has a responsibility to send troops to enforce the Bosnian peace settlement because a failure to do so would mean the end of NATO and a broader war in the region, Vice President Al Gore said on November 29. ``The risks of not accepting this mission are overwhelming,'' Gore told two Jewish groups in Atlanta Georgia. ``The consequences of such a statement by our nation would include the destruction of NATO. A resumption of violence would send ``streams of refugees into Albania and Greece, igniting a conflict between Greece and Turkey and a wider war throughout that region, causing instability in large areas of Europe,'' Gore said.
[6] Ministers to Reflect on Balkan PeaceForeign ministers from 27 countries will gather in Paris on the eve of the signing of the Bosnia peace deal to discuss how to avoid future conflicts in the Balkans, the French Foreign Ministry said on December 1. Ministry spokesman Jacques Rummelhardt said the so-called Group of Reflection on Stability and Good Neighbourhood in south-east Europe would meet on December 13 to discuss preventive diplomacy in the region. It will gather ministers from the 15 European Union states, the United States, Russia, Turkey, the five countries from ex-Yugoslavia and their four neighbours -- Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania.
[7] Albania to Accelerate Oil and Gas ExplorationAlbania seeking to accelerate the pace of oil and gas exploration opened a second international onshore licencing round on 28 November, the Financial Times reports. In the latest licencing round, launched at a seminar in London attended by about 30 international oil companies, Albania is offering eight new blocks onshore, covering a total of 22,400 square kilometers. There are concessions offered for yet another two onshore blocks from the first licensing round and one offshore block in the Adriatic sea, previously relinquished by Agip. Albania offers production sharing agreements and bids must be submitted by mid 1996. New finds will be crucial to Albania's efforts to increase oil production. Output has fallen to between 500,000 and 550,000 tons a year from a peak of close to 2.5m tons in the early 1980s. Resources are estimated to be about 440 million tons. (Financial Times, November 29, 1995)
[8] Two Albanian Migrants Dead, 16 Missing in SeaTwo Albanians drowned and 16 were missing after their rubber boat capsized in the southern Adriatic in a bid to reach Italy illegally, police said on December 1. Twenty three people were aboard the boat when it capsized. Despite a rescue operation, only the bodies of two men have been found. Albanians seeking a better life in Italy cross the southern Adriatic regularly.
[9] Greek Minister Predicts More Growth for 1996Greece's economy will grow two percent this year and more than 2.5 percent in 1996, up from targets the socialist government set in mid-1994, National Economy Minister Yannos Papandoniou said on November 28. Papandoniou told a business conference that gross domestic product growth this year would be two percent, against an earlier forecast of 1.2 percent. Better than expected growth was due to an acceleration in investment, he said. ``Private business investments in the current year are rising, in volume, at a rate of 8.3 percent and public investments at a rate of 14.4 percent.'' The government has several times revised growth targets upwards since it released its plan in 1994 to align the economy with other European Union countries.
[10] Greek Premier's Illness Causes Stocks to FallThe Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) general share price index fell 1.5% on November 28 to close at 871.78 on news that the condition of Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, hospitalized for a week, had worsened. The fall reflects continuing worry in the Greek stock market that the government's anti-inflationary policies may be at risk if 76-year -old Papandreou dies or becomes incapacitated. "The entire activity of the ASE now has come to depend on medical bulletins about the prime minister's condition," one stockbroker said. Papandreou has been seriously hill for 8 days because of a pulmonary infection. He was put on a dialysis machine today.
[11] Polls Favor Greek Defense Minister as SuccessorGreek Defence Minister Gerassimos Arsenis is narrowly favoured to succeed ailing socialist Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, a private poll said on December 2. The ICAP-GALLUP poll, conducted in the Athens area and published in the Eleftheros Typos newspaper, said 20.3 per cent of those asked opted for Arsenis to take over the premiership. Former industry minister Costas Simitis was favoured by 17.3 per cent followed by Parliament President Apostolos Kaklamanis with 12.7 per cent and Interior Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos, who now deputises for Papandreou, with 6.7 per cent.
[12] British Investments in Albania GrowBritish exports to Albania now amount to 5 million pounds a year, according to Albanian press reports on November 26. For the second quarter of 1995, the import of British goods amounted to 106 million Leks, or 0.69 percent of Albania's total imports. Two British oil companies, Premier and Shell, have signed prospecting agreements. On August 17, 1994, Premier Consolidated Oilfields Plc signed an agreement with Albpetrol, establishing Anglo-Albanian Petroleum (AAP) -- a joint company in which each party has a 50 percent share. Under the agreement, AAP operates on land with two licences. Drilling will take place in the areas of Dumre and Patos-Marinze. AAP will bring enhanced oil recovery technology to Albania, which will increase oil production. Shell International is planning to prospect on land. Last year, British Petroleum signed an aircraft fueling agreement with Rinas Airport.
[13] Remittances from Emigrants Seen as CriticalA report by the Albanian Ministry of Finances describes the remittances from emigrants as critical in supporting the economy. Without that help, Albania would require twice as much aid as it does today, the report quoted by newspaper Republika states. The living standards of families, especially in towns and cities unquestionably depend on the direct help from emigrants. In 1994, it was estimated that every second Albanian family had someone employed abroad. In October 1995, three fifths of all Albanian families had at least one member abroad. According to the Statistics Institute, about 13 percent of the Albanian population or 28 percent of its work force is employed abroad. In 1994, the remittances from the emigrants amounted to $262 million or twice the amount of foreign aid and loans. Banking institutions now regard emigrants' earnings as a very important source of foreign currency for the strained finances of the country. Foreign currency earnings coming in in the form of goods amounted to $120 million in 1994 and $150 million in 1995. The total contribution of emigrants in net foreign currency and goods in 1995 is estimated at $450 million or 25 percent of the GNP. In most cases, emigrants have difficulties tranferring money to Albania through banks or by mail. It is estimated that about 8 percent of depositors in Greek banks are Albanian emigrants. About $900 million worth of emigrant earnings languish in foreign banks, the report says. (Republika)
[14] Albanian Police Confiscates Forged MoneyPolice in north Albanian districts of Malesia e Madhe and Shkodra arrested three people who were in possession of 900,000 false Lek ($ 10,000). The suspects ignored a police check near Shkodra and fled to Koplik, where they were halted. The arrests might lead to a larger ring suspected of distributing false leks. There are signs that the money might either have been imported from France or printed in Saranda. (Koha Jone Nov 30)
[15] Fountain Oil Announces Operating Results for FY 1995Fountain Oil Inc. ("Fountain"),(NASDAQ NMS:GUSH) announced on November 29 operating results for its fiscal year ending August 31, 1995. For the year ending August 31, 1995, the company recorded operating revenues of $625,457 (as compared to $3,613 in fiscal 1994) comprising sales and rental of and services related to electrically enhanced oil recovery equipment. The operating loss amounted to $7,882,920 of which general and administrative expenses amounted to $4,012,510 (as compared to $1,466,345 in fiscal 1994). Fountain completed an agreement in Russia and talks are at an advanced stage for significant interest in two producing oil fields in Ukraine and one in Albania.
[16] E-U Faces Tough Task on Bosnia AidThe European Commission has estimated that it could scrape together about $1 billion over to help the reconstruction of the former Yugoslavia and U.S. President Bill Clinton has suggested that his country's contribution could be just over half that. But Carl Bildt, the likely choice to be High Representative to oversee the reconstruction effort has suggested that no reconstruction money should be released until there is some sort of Balkan Agreement in which all the former Yugoslav nations agree to at least trade with each other. Such a Balkan Agreement would encompass Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia as well a Albania. (Reuter, December 3, 1995)
[17] Albania and U.S. Form the Weirdest Military RelationshipLooking stately in a sharp new uniform, Maj. Gen. Perlat Sula stood on a bluff overlooking the deep blue waters off Albania's Adriatic coast. The Albanian air force commander wore a pensive look: Dancing through his head, he said, were visions of U.S. Marines landing in the soft surf, U.S. Army helicopters flitting along the shoreline and U.S. Navy warplanes shrieking overhead.Under Albanian communism, Sula would have been having a nightmare. 'Today,' he said, 'it is a very good dream.' Only three years after Albania shed a virulent form of totalitarianism that won it the sobriquet 'the North Korea of Europe,' its military has run headlong into the embrace of the U.S. Defense Department. The result - a partnership between the richest army in the world and one of the poorest - has spawned what one West European diplomat called 'perhaps the weirdest military relationship I've ever seen.' Albania was the first nation in the former Eastern Bloc to formally request entry into NATO and the 10th to sign up for NATO's Partnership for Peace. It is slated to become the first state in the former Eastern Bloc to buy weapons from the United States. The Pentagon has earmarked $2 million in its 1996 budget to help Albania purchase two TOW antitank systems and five Vulcan antiaircraft weapons. U.S. military aid to Albania has run the gamut from more than 150 used vehicles to a 500-bed field hospital and a shipment of army underwear. Plans next year are for several T-37 jet trainers and two patrol boats to be thrown in free. Later this month, a team of U.S. military surveyors is scheduled to arrive in Albania to scout for a training center for Albanians and U.S. sailors and Marines - including the center Perlat visited recently on the seashore at Rreth Garth, 35 miles southwest of Tirana, the capital. If a deal is cut, and several U.S. officers confirmed that it is being pursued seriously, the center would become the first military facility to be used by the United States in a post-Communist country. U.S. spy planes from the Defense Department and the CIA have used Albanian bases free of charge since early 1994 for reconnaissance missions over the former Yugoslavia. An American Coast Guard captain helped draft Albania's maritime law. Defense Mapping Agency experts are sketching its seas. In short, the relationship - which this year has included nine joint military exercises and 250 other events, such as seminars and trips for Albanian officers to the United States - has all the trappings of a military love affair. U.S. officers speak of being hit by the 'Albanian syndrome' - what one senior officer described as 'a real intense desire to find a way to help these guys.' The reason the United States has adopted this small country of 3.3 million people as a penniless brother involves the key place Albania occupies in one of the world's most hazardous regions: the Balkans. With Greece to the south, the remnant Yugoslav federation of Serbia and Montenegro to the north, newly independent Macedonia to the east and the Adriatic and Ionian seas to the west, Albania has been damned by geography to possess a strategic value far outweighing its population and paltry economy, in which the average salary is only $60 a month. Tirana lies just 180 miles from Sarajevo. Albania's status as the homeland of ethnic Albanians has also granted this small state special importance in an area where ethnic tensions already have erupted in Croatia and Bosnia. The Balkans' 9 million Albanians are the region's second-largest ethnic group after the Serbs. Touting facilities in his country as 'less risky and less expensive' than those in nearby Croatia and Italy, Albanian President Sali Berisha welcomed U.S. or NATO use of any Albanian military base in the event of a peace deal in Bosnia and Croatia. 'The Balkans are blazing. These flames should be extinguished, and the only way is NATO presence,' he said in an interview. 'We welcome the Americans. They are the key to our stability.' U.S. officials say a stable and pro-Western Albania is critical to the emerging U.S. policy in the Balkans because it increases the chances of a peaceful solution to the search for minority rights for the 2 million Albanians in Yugoslavia and those in neighboring Macedonia, where they make up 23 percent of the population. In addition, with Albania firmly in the Western camp, this small country can anchor a network of security stretching from Macedonia through Albania, then up to Croatia, Hungary and Romania, that officials in Washington say is designed to deter Serbian-led Yugoslavia from further aggressive adventures. (By John Pomfret and David B. Ottaway The Washington Post - November 21, 1995) |
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