With regard to the latest report of the UN Secretary- General on the situation in Macedonia, Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski sent a letter to Boutros Ghali on March 27, containing a couple of concrete suggestions, the Macedonian media reported yesterday, and the press, today.
Macedonian sources inform that most of them have been accepted and entered in the latest version of the draft-text of the report, which was supposed to be submitted to the Security Council yesterday.
The suggestions of the Macedonian Ministry, among the rest, points out that the elections conducted in Macedonia, despite certain technical irregularities, were assessed as fair and democratic, and that the boycott by the two oppositional parties followed in the second round, due to the defeat they suffered in the first one. Following the elections, a legitimate government was constituted, encompassing four out of the seven parties represented in Parliament.
"It's a fact that the census in Macedonia was conducted legally and under international control, therefore, we regard the political statements made in relation to the census as irrelevant," is said in Crvenkovski's letter, concerning the assertions that the ethnic Albanians are disputing the results of the census.
Furthermore, it is requested for the sentence about the trade embargo imposed by Greece to be revised, into - illegal trade embargo imposed by Greece as an unilateral measure. "We believe," the suggestion says, "that the change should be in the spirit of Resolution 817 and the accompanying documents in the Security Council. We have also pointed out the fact that the UN and EU documents recognize the internal borders between the former Yugoslav republics, as international borders, and that the problem is in the delineation of the border, for which Macedonia has proposed the formation of a bilateral state commission."
The UN Security Council was to adopt three resolutions on the new mandates of the peacekeeping forces in Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia, Thursday.
According to the statement of the president of the Security Council, the Chinese ambassador Li Joasing, as foreign agencies report, the texts of the draft-resolutions have been brought into coordination late Wednesday.
The new name for the members of the peacekeeping forces in Macedonia will be UNPREDEP - Preventive forces of the UN for Macedonia, and their mandate will be eight months.
According to the draft-resolution, the peacekeeping forces in Macedonia, Bosnia and Croatia will have separate mandates, but will be connected through the Main Headquarters in Zagreb.
The final name for the forces in Croatia, most probably, will be UNCRO, but it will not contain the name Croatia. The diplomats hope that by adding "in Croatia," in most texts, the name would be acceptable. Bosnia also asked the new name to also contain its name. But, when it comes to Macedonia, the question of the name is fully avoided, as Greece protested, as it has a province with the same name.
The official representative of the Greek Government Evangelos Venizelos stated that the invitation of the mediator of the UN Cyrus Vance, for talks between Athens and Skopje, scheduled for April 6, in New York, has been accepted.
At the press conference held in Athens Wednesday, Venizelos said that Greece was travelling to New York with "hard stances," already publicly formulated.
The head of the working group for inter-ethnic questions with the Geneva Conference for former Yugoslavia, the German ambassador Gerd Arens said in yesterday's press conference in Skopje: "We have always held the opinion that making a federation within this country would be the country's biggest mistake. We are also deeply convinced that this country can not be based on a two-national concept. We all want this country to keep its stability. In the past, there were some proposals for territorial autonomy in certain parts in this country. However, certainly, such territorial autonomy would imply drawing some lines inside, which, according to us, would bring to the appearance of big problems. That's why we agreed in Ohrid, 1992, for Macedonia to remain a citizens' state, that is, a country of its citizens, where everyone has equal rights and will not be discriminated against. However, you know, there are some practical problems with the implementation of the Constitution, and that's what we are also talking about," said Arens.
Ambassador Arens met in Skopje yesterday with the representatives of the Macedonian Government, as well as the leaders of the Albanian political parties. He stated that they discussed the problems in the education and the use of the languages in the local self-government.
The well-known problem surrounding the use of the language was the reason for the failure to sign the protocol for regulation of the road traffic between the Republic of Macedonia and the Republic of Bulgaria, which regulates the way and process for overcoming the problems in the traffic and the deadlines for their resolution.
Otherwise, this protocol was supposed to be signed following talks at expert level in the past two days, between the Deputy Minister in the Bulgarian Ministry of Transport and the Under Secretary in the Ministry of Traffic Boris Chausevski.
As Chausevski informed, the expert meeting focused on the elimination of the problems in the traffic in the two countries, foremost, its liberalization. The agreement would have settled the way of transporting dangerous materials, as well as the certificates of the vehicles, in accordance with the ADR convention. It should start being implemented from the beginning of October, this year. Also, the agreement would have regulated the transportation of passengers with transit permits through both countries, which should start being implemented from May 1. Also foreseen is additional liberalization in the transport through the elimination of dues of the transporters, while an expert meeting in the first half of April, for the crossing Zlatarevo-Novo Selo, has also been scheduled.
Last year, the Macedonian economy realized an overall income of MCD 350 billion (US$ 9.51 billion), which presents a nominal growth in comparison with the previous year, of 1.9 times, under conditions of retail price hikes - 2.2 times.
That shows that the realistically realized earnings are lower than the previous 1993. Therefore, last year, the economy realized expenditure 5.2% greater than the revenue. The expenditure reached a sum of MCD 368.3 billion (US$ 10 billion), and in mass, it is greater than the revenue MCD 18.2 billion (US$ 495 million).
In comparison with the structure of the income and expenditure, more notable are incomes from the sale of goods and services, and more so on the domestic market than the foreign markets. As for the expenditure, the participation of the purchase value of the sold goods and services, the material costs and amortization is becoming greater, while the costs that would mean revitalization of the production, that is, energy costs, spare parts, materials and raw materials, take a smaller part in the overall costs of the companies.
57% of the recorded companies, that have submitted final accounts, and which employ 55% of the total number of employees in the economy, are making profits, however, not much, only MCD 5.3 billion (US$ 144 million). The losses, on the other hand, reach MCD 23.5 billion (US$ 639 million) and are 4.5 times greater than the profits. That is, the profits from the total earnings are 1.5%, and the losses 6.7%.
According to the records of the Institute for payment operations, 12,503 companies with 155,232 workers are in the red. The biggest "losers" are 10 companies of which 7 are on the list of "losers" and which account for MCD 12.2 billion (US$ 332 million) of the total losses, or 52% of the overall losses realized in the economy.
Those, on the other hand, who made profits, 29% of the overall sum is intended for the payment of taxes, while 0.7% are for covering the inherited losses from the past year. That way, for distribution, these companies are left with MCD 3.7 billion (US$ 100 million).
For gross salaries, last year, MCD 47.2 billion (US$ 1,283 million) were put aside, while the average salary per worker was 6,803 denars (US$ 184.9).
As for the investments, last year, 342 objects were in the phase of construction, to the value of MCD 18.8 billion (US$ 510 million) of which 202 started the construction work last year.
The drop in industrial production was 11.5%, which is less in comparison with 1993, when the same drop was 14%. Out of 32 industrial branches, 7 noted a growth in production, while the rest recorded a drop. The smallest drop is with the production of food products and coal - 1%, and the biggest with the black metallurgy, machinery production and the graphic industry - 44%, and 85% with the production of oil derivatives.
The 16th International fair of medicine, dental and pharmaceutical equipment, instruments, used materials and medicine "Medicine '95" will be held in Skopje from April 4-7. While the 5th Balkan Tourist Market "BTB - '95" will take place from April 5-7. This was said at yesterday's press conference held at the Skopje fairgrounds.
86 exhibitors will take part in "Medicine '95," namely, from Macedonia, Bulgaria, FR Yugoslavia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Holland, U.S.A., France, Switzerland, Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Japan, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The fair will be opened by the Minister of Health Ilija Filipche.
85 tourist agencies, associations, air companies and tourist associations from Macedonia, FR Yugoslavia, Croatia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Egypt, Hungary, Russia, France and Holland will be taking part in the Balkan Tourist Market.
The second auction from the sale of state-owned business premises in the country cashed 6.7 million DEM in the state treasury. This sum came from the 51 sold premises, which cover a total area of 2,888 m2.
Of the 209 shops placed on offer, with a total area of 14,660 m2, these 51 were bought, which presents 1/4 of the overall offered number of shops. Most of the shops are in Skopje, while there were cases where not one shop in the country areas was bought.
The shops on offer are with an average size of 70 m2, and those that were bought were with an average area of 56 m2. The average starting price was 1,783 DEM, and the average price that was reached at the auction was 2,321 DEM per 1 m2.
In Skopje, of the offered 76 business areas, only 29 have been sold, in Strumica, out of 25, 5 were sold, while in Titov Veles, of the offered 10, 5 were sold. In Prilep, on the other hand, of the offered 10 shops, not one was sold, and the same happened also in Kavadarci, Kochani, Gevgelija, Gostivar and other towns.