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MILS NEWS 96-09-16Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: "Macedonian Information Liaison Service" <mils@mils.spic.org.mk>CONTENTS
MILS SUPPLEMENTMILS NEWSSkopje, 16 September, 1996[01] MORE EFFORTS FOR STRENGTHENING WEU-MACEDONIA RELATIONSLast Friday, at the meeting between Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov and West European Union Assembly President, Sir Dadley Smith, it was said that the cooperation of Macedonia with this association was becoming more and more developed, to which President Gligorov's visit to the WEU Assembly in Paris last year especially contributed. Local media reported that, besides the above stated, the situation in the region and the implementation of Dayton Accord in Bosnia were also subjects of talks.Ending his visit to the Republic of Macedonia, Sir Dadley Smith said he had much clearer picture of the country now, which would help his efforts to strengthen its connections with the WEU. [02] MEETING FRCHKOVSKI - PIRINSKI AGREED ONDelegations of the Macedonian and Bulgarian Ministries of Foreign Affairs had two rounds of talks in Skopje last Friday, during which a number of issues regarding the bilateral and multilateral cooperation had been discussed. Macedonian Foreign Ministry officially announced that a meeting of Macedonian Foreign Minister Ljubomir Frchkovski with his Bulgarian counterpart Gjorgji Pirinski had been agreed on to take place during their participation at the 51st session of UN General Assembly. It was also agreed the consultations between the two Ministries to be intensified, especially in the sphere of trade-economic issues, of consular issues and in the field of multilateral cooperation.According to Macedonian media, Minister Frchkovski had stressed that Macedonia was interested in equal and intensive connections with all countries, and that he expected the cooperation between Macedonian and Bulgaria to improve, underlying the official regulating of relations. After the talks ended, Bulgarian deputy Foreign Minister Ivan Hristov made the following statement for the press: 'I can definitely not agree with the thesis that Bulgarian- Macedonian relations are going through a critical phase.' However, he agreed that there was a holdup, and said the talks had convinced him that both parties were interested in finding an acceptable solution. In context of that, Hristov said: 'As there is a wish, I believe that we will reach a variant acceptable for both parties. After the constructive talks we had with Minister Frchkovski, I am leaving in an optimistic mood and with expectations that we would realize all the ideas in accordance with the spirit of positive tendencies in the region.' [03] FINAL DECISION FOR SAL AND FESAK CREDITS ON 23 SEPTEMBERMacedonia is close to making the third arrangement with the World Bank for the so called SAL credit, by which payment balance of the country would be supported with $40-50 million US. The World Bank Board is also expected to make a final decision regarding the second installment of the FESAK credit $42,5 million US worth, for which Macedonia had requested to be given without prior passing the Law on Denationalization. Decisions will be made on 23 September, 1996, when a Macedonian delegation will leave for Washington to attend the annual meeting of the World bank and the IMF. These information were presented by Macedonian Vice Prime Minister Ljube Trpevski last Friday, at a press conference, in which World Bank representatives participated: Kenneth Lay, a Director for South-Eastern Europe, and Ellen Goldstein, the permanent WB representative to Macedonia.According to the local media, Trpevski stressed that WB President's letter to the Board of Directors contained Macedonian request for the Law on Denationalization to be excluded from the conditions for the second installment of the FESAK credit to be approved, adding that the decision would be most probably a positive one. Mr. Lay stated that although Macedonia had been improving well, there was still much more to be done for the obstacles in the development to be removed, and which the World Bank expects to be even bigger than in the past. 'World Bank's determination is to overcome the poverty and improve the standard of living, and we will not be satisfied until Macedonia achieves a significant economic growth, greater possibilities for employment and improvement of the situation in the social protection,' Lay stated. During the several days long visit to Macedonia, WB delegates, led by Kenneth Lay, had meetings with President Kiro Gligorov and Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski. [04] AGREEMENT ON INVESTMENTS PROTECTION WITH CHINA SIGNEDWithin the framework of the working visit to China, Macedonian representatives, led by Minister for Economy Bekjir Zhuta, had a meeting with the Chinese Foreign Trade Minister Hu Yi, when the first meeting of the Macedonian- Chinese Committee for Economic Cooperation was opened and a Protocol on Economic Cooperation was signed. As 'Nova Makedonija' daily read, the Agreement on Support and Protection of Investments had also been agreed on and signed.Vice Prime Minister Bekjir Zhuta had a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Yu Zhugunchi. They said the current trade exchange between the two countries was not corresponding to the possibilities, and expressed their hope that to change positively in future. 'China Daily' paper reminded that, when Macedonia was a part of SFRY, it had intensive connections with the Chinese province Dziagsi. [05] CONSULTATIONS FOR DIVIDING THE SFRY GOLD RESERVESGovernors of the National banks of Macedonia, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina will have another consultative meeting in Skopje today to talk about the dividing of $600 million US worth reserves in foreign currencies and gold of the former SFRY National Bank, blocked in the International Deposits Bank in Basle, Switzerland. A-1 Television reported that subject of talks would be the dividing model proposed by the IMF, which was discussed at the previous meeting in Slovenia this summer. According to that model, Macedonia would receive 5.4%, i.e. over $30 million US of the total sum of $600 million. A-1 TV cited an unofficial information from circles in the Macedonian National Bank, according to which FR Yugoslav Governor had also been invited to the meeting, but that he had not replied to it and will most probably ignore it.[06] MACEDONIA WILL BEGIN TO CONTROL FLIGHTS ON 8 NOVEMBERThese days in Belgrade, Macedonian and FR Yugoslav Flight Controls had finally agreed on the coordination, i.e. transfer of airplanes to take place on 8 November, 1996. That is when Macedonian controllers will take over the directing of planes on heights over 7,000 meters, which was entrusted to the northern neighbour during the last five years. 'Nova Makedonija' daily reads that transfer is going to be made in accordance with standards and suggestions of the International Control of Air-transport Organization (ICAO).Meanwhile, at the end of this or at the beginning of the following month, Flight Controls of Macedonia, Greece, FRY, Bulgaria and Albania will have a regional meeting in Athens, during which it will be decided when the Agreement on Coordination and Transfer of Planes between Flight Controls of Greece and Macedonia will come in force. This Agreement had already been signed, and the date expected to be agreed is 8 November. So far, the coordination was done according to the previous Agreement between former SFRY and the Republic of Greece. [07] SEMINARS OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONSThe Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) in Macedonia will organize two seminars for Macedonian non-governmental organizations in the next several days in Struga and Titov Veles on the subject 'Projects planning, budgets creating and draft-projects writing'. The seminars will be attended by other representatives of foreign foundations that are financing projects of non-governmental organizations in the Republic, of the Macedonian National Office with the Regional Ecology Centre in Budapest, of the Macedonian Centre for International Cooperation and of the Open Society Institute, which will present their programmes. The seminars are a beginning of the third round of financial support that the Open Society Institute has been giving to Macedonian non-governmental organizations.[08] 'GALAXY': MACEDONIANS HAD LEFT DIFFERENT TRACES IN THE ANCIENT HISTORY THAN GREEKSAustralian cable TV station 'Galaxy' had emitted a programme about the ancient world, in which it was said that Macedonians had left their traces in the history as Macedonians, and not as Greeks. It was supported with the fact that Macedonia had become independent by defeating Greece in the year of 338 B.C. Macedonian Television reported that the programme also contained reports of experts famous worldwide, who stated that ancient Macedonian army had been clearly different than the Greek one. The editor Peter Nicholson, an American, had presented proofs that Macedonian civilization had been Greek, as the Greek science itself contained evidence of the ancient Greeks' wish to chase out Macedonians back to Macedonia, i.e. to liberate Greece from Macedonian barbarians.According to Macedonian Television, this was the second time this year for 'Galaxy' to emit programmes prepared in Washington which deny the Greek stand that ancient Macedonian civilization was Greek. The above mentioned second programme included active participation of the National Library of France and of the Museum of Antique History in Istanbul. [09] PACKAGE OF LAWS ON LOCAL ELECTIONS COMPLETEDAfter a three days long discussion, Macedonian Parliament passed the Law on Territorial Dividing of Macedonia, on The City of Skopje, and on Electoral Lists and IDs, by which the package of laws necessary for local elections to take place was completed. As announced already, Macedonia has been divided into 123 municipalities. In fact, the proposal of the Government was changed in that way that two of the suggested number of 120 municipalities were 'erased' and another five were added.Regarding the Law on The City of Skopje, there were many remarks to the competence the Government had given to the City, and to the competencies the City would delegate to the municipalities on its territory. The Laws on Electoral Lists and on Electoral IDs were passed without any discussions, and Parliament President Tito Petkovski is expected to set the date of local elections today, which will, unofficially, take place on 17 November. [10] DP: 'LOCAL ELECTIONS WITH A FALSIFIED LAW''The Law on Local Elections was passed in an unusual time, in irregular conditions and without quorum, which shows the efforts of the government and SDSM to falsify the forthcoming elections with a falsified Law,' Democratic Party Spokesman Jovan Manasievski said at a press conference last Friday. According to him, the Democratic Party and all the other opposition parties would reconsider their participation in the local elections only in case a compromise is reached with the Government on two issues: first, State Electoral Commission to be constituted on a parity basis (i.e. of opposition and ruling parties representatives) and second, electoral lists to be precisely regulated. Stating that Justice Minister Popovski had not respected what he had agreed on with the opposition about the final version of the Law, Manasievski pointed out other issues which had remained unsolved: suggestions for the voters to sign after voting, standardization of the recording forms, maintaining of previous polling places and separate hanging up of electoral lists. 'In case the Democratic Party participates in the elections, it will not do it in a coalition,' Manasievski said, informing that they had had contacts only with VMRO-DPMNE about a pre-electoral cooperation.Meanwhile, 'Nova Makedonija' reported that Democratic Party leader Petar Goshev had met tete-a-tete with Liberal Party leader Stojan Andov last Friday. [11] DPM DEMANDS FROM MINISTER POPOVSKI TO RESIGNDemocratic Party of Macedonia (DPM) last Saturday expressed their great disappointment with the passing of the Law on Territorial Dividing of the Republic of Macedonia by the Parliament. According to the media, this party's announcement said that they had demanded from Justice Minister Vlado Popovski to resign since he had 'violated the proposed concept for territorial dividing'. The party also estimated the way Parliament President Tito Petkovski had conducted the 53rd session as scandalous.Due to all these reasons, DPM will decide whether to participate in the forthcoming local elections only after the consultations it would have with citizens of west Macedonia. [12] DPT PROTESTS AGAINST DOUBLE STANDARDS IN EDUCATIONDemocratic Party of Turks in Macedonia had called on a dialogue with competent institutions in the country on the occasion of the events going on in the village of Kodzadzik in Debarska Zhupa. Namely, about 60 parents have been hunger striking for two weeks already, demanding for their children to be allowed to study in Turkish language at the primary school 'Nedzati Zekirija'. The party also asked from President Kiro Gligorov, according to 'Vecer' daily, to appear as a mediator in the solving of this problem, as previous meetings with Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski had given no results.DPT President Erdogan Sarach stated at the press conference that the Constitution guaranteed to each individual the right to declare his / her nationality and to be educated in his / her mother tongue. 'We do not want this case to be politicized and do not want to prosecute the state, which we love and which loyal citizens we are. But we can not understand why does it have a double standard and gives the right to the pupils to be educated in Macedonian and in Albanian, but not in Turkish,' Sarach said. [13] COMPOSER TOMA PROSHEV AND BAGPIPER PECE ATANASOVSKI PASSED AWAYToma Proshev, a famous Macedonian composer, former Dean of the Faculty of Music Art in Skopje, Director of the Macedonian National Theatre Opera House and a founder of the Chamber Ensemble 'St. Sofia' suddenly passed away last Thursday in Skopje. Proshev was also an author of many written works in the field of music, and was awarded with almost all prizes.Local media also reported about the death of Pece Atanasovski the day before yesterday. He was one of the first bagpipers and dancers in the Macedonian folklore ensemble 'Tanec' and a founder of the traditional festival of national songs and dances 'Marko Cepenkov'. Pece Atanasovski had contributed a great deal to the affirmation of Macedonian national music abroad. MILS SUPPLEMENT[14] 'Animating The Macedonian Stock Exchange - A National Interest'('Dnevnik', 14 September, 1996)'The stock exchange is not obligatory, but is the only possibility for economic prosperity to take place', Andre Costellani, an American theoretician and practitioner of stock exchange issues, said. The stock exchange is an institution of a national interest. It is a crucial ring of the normal financial and economic system in each country of the world with a market driven economy. The stock exchange is a market, and there is no trade without a market, without trade there is no goods exchange or evaluation, and if there is not all of that, we are back in the past. In other words, we are back in the socialism, and not in the one as imagined by its ideologists projected for a more perfect being than the man, but in the one that was going on in Eastern Europe and still is in China, Cuba, Northern Korea - an absurd society with a total lack of freedom. The Republic of Macedonia has been having its Stock Exchange for five months already. And it has many problems, as any other young institutions do. Honestly speaking, some of them were inherited and will be solved slowly, hand in hand with overcoming the crisis and the transformation in the economic and financial system. However, there are things that might improve the working conditions, such as legal regulations. During the previous period, Macedonian Stock Exchange had realized a turnover of DM 500,000 and manifested all the basic negative things, which are normal at the beginning of the work of these institutions in all countries going through a transition. It is good that the chaos and scandals that which place in some of those countries (e.g. Russia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, ... ) have not happened with the Macedonian Stock Exchange, as well. Probably the stock exchange chaos in those countries corresponded to the economic and political chaos in their economic and state systems. What are the problems that appear at the stock exchanges of the countries going through a transition? Bad liquidity of securities, small number of companies trading with securities, weak transparency of the data regarding the enterprises, great instability of share prices and unstable number of transactions made. Our particular problem is the low liquidity of shares, although it is expected for the beginning. It averts many potential investors from coming to Macedonia, especially those who are interested in short term speculative deals. The inability to find buyers for shares at any moment is a problem to which economy and law experts will have to pay an extraordinary attention. Reasons for the situation in Macedonia to be like this are the weakly developed or non-accomplished several crucial issues of the state system, such as: 1. One of the worst developed financial systems in Europe; 2. Not developed and not fully privatized economy; 3. Legal system. Development of the stock exchange is directly depending on the dynamics in which they would develop. The economy and the stock exchange can be compared with an old man and his dog: the old man is going forward with small steps and is pausing from time to time, while the dog is running ahead, sniffing around and returning to him. The mostly manifested and analyzed matters regarding the work of the Stock Exchange are: the Law on Trade Companies (which contains the most unfavourable Article 290); the lack of laws referring to issuing of and trading with securities, a law on brokers' houses, investment funds, tax alleviation for firms which stock are rated, correction of the Law on Double taxation, and other regulations. Also, the interests rates offered by commercial and savings banks are much higher than companies' dividends. The low standard of living with annual $700 US per capita and the currently inaccessible minimum of annual $3,000 US per capita (which are necessary for a stock exchange to function normally) is also important factor for stock exchange development. And finally, the small number of educated people in this sphere and the great lack of confidence that citizens have in the state in general, especially in its financial system, also contribute to the current situation. Many of these problems can be referred to as 'normal and expected', but can anything be changed and improved? Although one can say that most of the above cited problems are inherited and need time to be solved, for some of them there is no excuse, such as for the Article 290 of the Law on Trade Companies. There are, unfortunately, no indications that anything might change soon. And that is bad for the Stock Exchange and for the brokers, who can not do their best despite their good training and great enthusiasm. Also, there is not much time till 25 December 1996 - the dead line (as stated in the law on brokers' houses, which is almost accomplished) for the banks to separate their broker departments and make them independent ltd. houses, which would work independently and make a profit. (to be continued)mils news 14 September, 1996Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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