The President of Macedonia Kiro Gligorov yesterday received the chief of the EU Monitoring Mission for former Yugoslavia, the French ambassador Albert Tiro, who is on a tour of a couple of Balkan countries. Ambassador Tiro was interested in Macedonia's foreign policy and President Gligorov's views on the possible outcomes of the Bosnian conflict.
President Gligorov briefed the EU representative on Macedonia's positions and activities in the relations with the countries from the immediate neighbourhood. He reaffirmed the permanent orientation of Macedonia toward the European option and emphasized the enormous significance of the advancement of the relations and cooperation between the Republic of Macedonia and the European Union. Furthermore, President Gligorov expressed his concern for the situation in Bosnia, and Macedonia's support of the efforts of the international community for finding, before all, peaceful and diplomatic solutions to the military conflict.
The ambassador of the Republic of Romania to Macedonia Nikolas, accompanied by his wife Maria, paid a visit to the Macedonian Archbishopric, where they were received by the head of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, the Archbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia Mihail and the metropolitan of Polog and Kumanovo Mr. Cyril, the cabinet of the Archbishop informs.
The one-hour long friendly talks focused on issues concerning the relations between the Macedonian Orthodox Church and the Romanian Orthodox Church. Among the rest, an emphasis was placed on the cooperation between the heads of churches and the bishopric of the two churches.
Macedonia's Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski will pay an official visit to the Republic of Turkey from June 16-18, at the invitation of the Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Chiller, the Macedonian Information Secretariat informs.
Following the interpellation of the PDP parliamentary group on the general director of the Macedonian Radio and Television Melpomeni Korneti, as Makpress reports, she said:
"I did not take part in any agreements before my appointment, nor did I accept to be a part of some preconditions concerning the personnel policy in this public radio-diffusion organization."
As to accusations addressed to her that the expansion and advancement of the programs in Albanian language is going very slowly, she said: "As for the program in Albanian language, there was never any reservation on my part for its expansion." "However," Korneti said, "it can't all be done at once." In that context, she explained that MRTV accepted the help from the Commission for former Yugoslavia, that an agreement was signed thanks to Gerd Arens, and the equipment is due to be delivered this summer.
Yesterday, early in the morning, two illegal schools were torn down. Namely, the Demolition Service of the regional unit of the Ministry of Urbanization of the Debar municipality tore down two elementary schools in the villages Center Zhupa and Papradnik, where classes were illegally held in Turkish language, for the past two years.
The reason for the demolition is that the school in Papradnik, built in the yard of the mosque, did not have a building licence. The same goes for the one in Center Zhupa.
Reportedly, the demolition orders came directly from the building inspection and have no relation with the recent work ban of the Ministry of Education, concerning the holding of classes outside the educational system.
Yesterday, at 16.00 hours, the first "Palair-Macedonia" plane took off for Amsterdam, after the 24-hour grounding of the two companies "Palair-Macedonian" and MAT, which are several months behind in their payments to the public company for airport services "Makedonija" for rendered landing services, handling and ATC.
"Palair" was allowed to take off after the companies paid a part of the debt - 4.5 million DM.
Namely, the companies paid 40% of their debts, "Palair's" 3 million DM and MAT's 1.5 million DM. Yesterday afternoon, a MAT plane also took off for Vienna.
This flight ban caused real chaos at the Skopje airport among passengers who had bought tickets for the cancelled flights earlier. This situation had an especially bad effect on passengers who were waiting for intercontinental flights and who, after landing in some European cities, had to board other planes of international air companies which then had to take them to the other continents.
The Confederation of Trade Unions of Macedonia (CTU) proposes that the lowest salary, which is being negotiated with the Government and the Macedonian Chamber of Commerce be set at 190 DM in denar equivalent value. In determining this sum, the CTU took a number of parameters into account, such as the consumer's basket, average salary, money compensations, social dues, lowest pension, etc. The sum recently proposed by the Chamber of Commerce is 120 DM, and according to the CTU president Zhivko Tolevski, the price that they are offering is not fixed, and its level will be a result of the accord that the social partners will reach. According to Tolevski, the state can also set the lowest salary by law.
Otherwise, the Government, Chamber and CTU have already reached an accord in principle over the need to determine the lowest salary, while the CTU insists that it be treated as an economic category.
The first Congress of the pharmacists of Macedonia, with international participation, has started in Ohrid, in hotel Metropol. Participating are 700 pharmacists from the country, as well as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Albania and Great Britain.
The Congress, which will last 3 days, should enable an expert analysis of the progress made so far, the development and expert training of the pharmacists. According to the program, the Congress will work in several sections: pharmaceutical technology, bio-pharmacy, pharmaceutical chemistry, medicine analysis, pharmo-informatics, medicinal herbs, etc.
A new factory was opened in Strumica yesterday, for the production and confectioning of polyethylene and polypropylene of the private production company "Tehnoplast."
The total value of the investment is 3 million DM, which includes most modern equipment and production technology, confectioning and printing of polyethylene linen and cellophane, as well as the production of granulates, which, as a raw material, was only imported earlier. The entire production of the factory, which will employ some 40 workers, is strictly for the domestic market.
Otherwise, "Tehnoplast" is a relatively young private firm which turned 6 recently, and which employed only four workers in the beginning, who produced 15 tones of granulate per month.
The new tarrif for charging rents for state-owned business premises came into effect on June 1, this year. Namely, the rents went up 100%.
Until now, the cheapest rent in Skopje was 5 DM per 1 m2, which means that from now on, it is 10 DM per 1 m2. The rents in the City Commerce Center in Skopje were the highest, where 12 DM were charged for 1 m2, and from now on, it will be 24 DM.