MONEY - Economy, Business, Finances and Market
According to Crvenkovski, his American host assessed the UN mission in Macedonia as successful. As for the economy, the talks concentrated on the succeeded debt to the Paris club for which a solution was requested and several alternative solutions were offered. Several concrete projects were also made by the American side, first off all the participation of American firms in the realization of a part of the East-West project.
Crvenkovski also mentioned the meeting with the mediator in the Greek-Macedonian dispute, Cyrus Vance, in regards to which he said "was short and without any specific new ideas". However, according to Crvenkovski, Vance expressed determination to continue the mediating mission, while Macedonia expressed readiness to continue the dialogue, and even the direct negotiations, within the frame of the mediating mission.
The Minister also gave his comments to the State Department's report on the human rights in Macedonia. He said that this years report had a series of inaccuracies, that mainly originated from the field reports. He characterized the general picture of the report as quite positive, while he pointed out as an important omission the allegations that it is compulsory to ask the police for permission to hold public gatherings, which is incorrect.
As far as the remark that the right to religious freedom was threatened, because the Serbian Orthodox Church was not allowed to hold mass on the territory of Macedonia, he said that the church had tried to register as a citizens' association and not as a religious community.
In response to the remark that the Albanians were discriminated against upon the implementation of the Law for citizenship, Crvenkovski said that this was unfounded. And, as an argument, he said that it was enough to see how many Albanians had received citizenship up till now and the speed with which this was done.
He also said that the allegations about police violations of criminal procedure, more specifically, holding suspects for more than 24 hours, like in the case with the Albanian paramilitary, were also imprecise.
As for overstepping police authority, he pointed out that the State Department's report claims that there were only 4 cases of administrative measures taken against police employees. However, in fact in 1994 alone, there were 50 cases when proceedings were initiated, while 32 policemen were fired for overstepping their authorities.
Namely these are the Laws for trade associations, for firms, for denationalization, as well as several economic- monetary projects.
The commission also gave a green light to the proposal to adopt a law for ratification of the Agreement for cooperation in the battle against terrorism, drug traficking and organized crime between the Governments of the two states.
The agreements for trade and economic cooperation with the Republic of Turkey and for scientific and technical cooperation with the governments of the Republic of Albania and Slovenia were also ratified.
In his interview for MAKPRESS, prior to his departure from Macedonia, the former commander of UNPROFOR in Macedonia, Gen. Tryggve Tellefsen stated that tension along the Macedonian- Serbian border increased in June last year after the incident on Cupino brdo.
In relation to his contacts with the representatives of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army, he said that "they don't have any demands or plans for any kind of aggressive activities toward Macedonia" and that "they see Macedonia as a very close and friendly neighboring country, and that they both need each other". General Tellefsen believes that it is necessary to "establish normal mutual relations, foremost, for economic cooperation, trade, and another very important step - the formation of a commission for delineation of the border line".
Speaking on the situation inside Macedonia, especially relations between Macedonians and Albanians, General Tellefsen said "it is very important to understand that your country is a multi-ethnic state". He expressed his conviction that "the Albanian part of the population wants to be a part of this country and to participate in the democratic processes that are in progress".
The Greek politicians Vaso Papandreou, Kostas Simitis and Kostas Karamanlis criticized the Government about its policy towards its northern neighbors Macedonia and Albania. The Government was requested to immediately undertake an initiative to settle the problems with the neighboring Balkan countries. Vaso Papandreou suggested that Greece initiates the formation of a Council of Balkan states, in which he pointed out that Macedonia would also have to be included in the future. Kostas Karamanlis interceded for a review of the Greek stances towards Macedonia and raised the question what Greece had gained on year after the implementation of the embargo.
Mazi paid special attention to the education of the Albanians in Macedonia, stressing the issue of the University in Tetovo. At the same time, he pointed out that high politicians in Skopje were against the idea of the University, under the excuse that the initiative was in contradiction with the Macedonian Constitution.
MONEY - Economy, Business, Finances and Market
According to unofficial sources, the meeting between the Serbian and Macedonian businessmen will last two days and will be held behind closed doors. Unofficial sources also mention the possibility of a meeting being held between Dushan Petreski and the Prime Minister of Serbia Mirko Marjanovich.
It is expected that the topic of discussions with the Serbian businessmen will be the cooperation between the Macedonian and Serbian economies and the establishment of better economic relations between the former Yugoslav republics.
The first group of firms that are selling an ideal part of the firm will decide by themselves how many shares they will put up on the market. For instance, the textile combine "Teteks", out of the entire number of 53,990 shares, is offering 92 shares on public sale at a price of 1,815 DEM each, or more precisely all of them are worth 167,495 DEM which presents only 0.17% of all of the shares in this firm. On the other hand "Skopski Lozar" will place on the market 85% of the entire capital of the firm, at a price of 609,458 DEM.
The group of firms that will be bought by the team of managers will be sold in such a way that those that want to run the company must buy at least 10 % (for the large firms) or 20% (for medium firms) of the estimated value of the firm. Within five years they will have to buy 51% of the shares of this firm. The Skopje brewery "Skopska pivarnica" is offering the largest number of shares valued at 10.28 million DEM with each share having a starting price of 283 DEM.
The workers claim that there are very few volunteers among these 1,100 who want to leave the firm. Some claim that the lists were made without any criteria and that some people among those who are dismissed have spouses who are also without jobs.
A large part of the workers are also reacting to the fact that privileged working period is not recorded, which is important for those who have more than 25 years of service and who have the right to compensation from the Bureau of Employment till the time they retire or till they find other jobs.
According to officials, problems are expected to arise also upon the clarification of the situation with the disabled workers, who number around 400 in the Steelworks.
The Government has provided 120,000,000 denars (US$ 3 million) for taking care of these 1,100 workers, while another US$ 3 million have been provided for a deal with Ukraine, which will enable the production process to be revived.