At the invitation of the Macedonian Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and vice chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Claus Kinkel will visit the Republic of Macedonia today.
Minister Kinkel will meet with the President of the Republic of Macedonia Kiro Gligorov, Speaker of Parliament Stojan Andov, and Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski. Furthermore, Kinkel will also meet with representatives of a number of political parties. Kinkel's visit is an expression of the intensified political dialogue between the two countries and support of the international affirmation of the Republic of Macedonia by the Federal Republic of Germany, as a factor of peace and stability on the Balkans. The talks between Foreign Minister Claus Kinkel and the highest representatives of the Republic of Macedonia will be the bilateral cooperation, the internal political and economic situation of the Republic of Macedonia, as well as the situation in the region. Minister Kinkel's visit presents a new impulse for the further development of the overall relations.
Over the Easter holidays, at an "irregular Congress" and in an expanded composition, the leadership of the social democrats will verify the election of the new party plumes.
Reportedly, the socialdemocrats will appear with only one candidate for president of the partyy. That is the current "first socialdemocrat" and premier Branko Crvenkovski. That way, at least according to predications, for the second time, Crvenkovski will have a solo race to the party throne (in the first case, Petar Goshev, although being candidated as his opponent, gave up the nomination).
Now, it is almost definitely sure that the chances of the to-date vice-presidents are slim: Nikola Popovski and Geshtakovski, for vice-presidential continuity. However, on their account, Tito Petkovski's outlook is getting brighter (undoubtedly, so as to eliminate rumors of some kind of split at the party top) for the function of vice-president of the party. What still is not known is whether they will go for the election of one or more vice presidents. In an outcome that would prefer the second option, then, Ljupcho Popovski's (current deputy coordinator of the deputy group of SDAM) and Blagoya Handziski's chances (current defence minister) look the best.
On the other hand, it is almost certain that it will come to a change in the function secretary-general of the party (two years ago, a castling was made: Nikola Popovski - Handziski, only for Handziski to also withdraw now). Here, the number of candidates is already much wider, however, the name Laze Kitanovski is starting to get mentioned quite often!?
The organization of the annual meeting of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development has, regretfully, made a serious oversight, due to which the head of the Macedonian delegation, Jane Miljovski, who is also governor of the EBRD, has submitted a strong protest. Namely, the Macedonian flag was not raised among the flags of the members of the EBRD, and Macedonia's constitutional name was not used in the materails used during the meeting. As a sign of protest, the Macedonian delegation left the official places in "Barbikan" and settled itself among the guests of the meeting, saying it would stay there, according to the letter sent to the president De Larozie, until the mistakes were not corrected.
The Foreign Minister of the Republic of Macedonia Stevo Crvenkovski gave an interview for the Macedonian Radio yesterday.
In relation to the acceptance of the Republic of Macedonia to the UN under an unconstitutional name, Mr. Crvenkovski said: "Firstly, we have not accepted any unconstitutional name. The application of the Republic of Macedonia for membership in the UN is with the name Republic of Macedonia. Our entire communication with the UN and with the organizations from the system of the UN is with that name. Also, a good part of the communications of a large number of countries with us is also with that name. We have not accepted, at any moment, any other name of the country except the one that it has. What stands in the resolution of the United Nations is that they will address the Republic of Macedonia in the system of the UN with the formula that is stated there. However, it does not say anywhere and it hasn't been made anywhere that the Republic of Macedonia will appear any differently. And, the Republic of Macedonia is not appearing any differently. And, there are also a great many countries that themselves respect our word and not what has been accepted for internal communication in the UN. Also, most of the publications in the world, encyclopedias, atlases from the most renown publishing houses, already in the first year of acceptance to the UN, cleared up that issue. So, now, in all great encyclopedias, in all great publishing houses that print atlases and maps and make globes, you will find only the name Republic of Macedonia. There are some exceptions, but few, and they are not in the first category of the most prominent publishers.
To the question about the position of the Macedonian national minority in Greece, minister Crvenkovski said: "It is a fact that closing the eyes before the truth can drive every country into a deep crisis. The sooner a country realizes that and the sooner it gets used to the reality of the situation depends on the overall situation in every country. If some country has a negative discriminating attitude toward a segment of its citizens, that country can not develop a democratic system, as a whole, in the long-run. Democracy can not be based on different treatments. In 21st century Europe, a country in which democracy is not based on legal foundations will not be able to function. Although because of its attitude toward the minorities a country slows down its own democratic development, at the same time, it is slowing down its own path toward integration in the world trends and is inflicting lasting damage to all its citizens, and not only the minorities. Therefore, I am convinced that the problem with the minorities will be a key question of the overall development of the countries in this region. And also those country that can not gather up enough courage to face the problem with the minorities, I'm afraid that they will have a difficult future," Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski said in the interview for the Macedonian Radio.
On April 18, the World bank is expected to review and approve the loan for roads, of a total of US$ 24 million, of which US$ 10 million will become available at once, as retroactive funding of the money spent so far for the construction of the road Tetovo-Gostivar, the Minister without portfolio Ljube Trpevski stated at yesterday's press conference of the Macedonian Government.
According to Trpevski, "the assessments for the reforms in the banking sphere, in the sector of the enterprises and the social field, have enabled us to easily finance the negotiations for the credit for structural adaptation of up to US$ 85 million, as well as the credit for social purposes, of US$ 14 million."
In relation to the FESA credit, for the first installment for which Macedonia has already met conditions, it was said that during its stay in Washington, the Macedonian delegation managed to procure 30% of the sum to be able to be used in the form of retroactive funding. "The National Bank of Macedonia has already been instructed to gather the documents for imports in the past couple of months, that will be presented to the World bank, following which the funds will be able to be withdrawn already in June."
The stay in Washington was also used for the definite determination of the letter of intentions of the Macedonian Government, which has already been submitted to the IMF. On May 5th, the IMF Board of directors is expected to approve the stand- by arrangement of up to US$ 55 million.
Minister Trpevski announced that after all of this was over, on May 29, the Paris Club was scheduled to convene and discuss the debt of the Republic of Macedonia to this association.
Apart from that, on April 14, the vice president of the World Bank Wilfried Talvitz and the director of the European department Rachel Lomaks are expected to arrive in Macedonia.
The Macedonian Government is making efforts to lower the bank interests rates, the Deputy Minister of Finance Hari Kostov said yesterday, adding that, however, it had no intention of administratively determining them.
Mr. Kostov said that it was literally impossible to find a company in the country which would be able to provide such an increase in profits so as to cover the costs, on account of the interests. He also added that with certain exceptions, the occurence of high interests on credits placed in the economy, was still present.
Deputy Minister Kostov stated that with the adoption of the Law for rehabilitation of the banks and by taking over a part of the obligations on account of the frozen foreign currency savings, the foreign credits and bad denar sales, the situation in the banking system is considerably improved, thereby creating realistic possibilities for the banks themselves to carry out appropriate reductions in the interest rates.
Kostov expressed the readiness of the Government to take part in the overall talks between the banks, whereby concrete results are expected in the next ten days.
The construction of the long-distance power line Bitola-Skopje is expected to start toward the middle of this month, which is when the investor "Electrodistribution of Macedonia" is expected to sign the agreement with "EMO" from Ohrid and the Turkish firm "Galkon," to carry out the work. The work is expected to start immediately after the signing of the agreement, as the preparator work on the route was completed quite some time ago.
The selection of these two firms to do the job has also been confirmed by the EBRD, which has approved a US$ 22 million credit. The selection, otherwise, was done in competition with 5 world companies.
This new 400 KW pipeline, spanning over a distance of 113.5 km, will transport the electric energy produced in the power plant "Bitola" and should reduce the current problems with the supply of electric energy.
The present high-voltage line is highly strained and uncertain, and it produces damages of up to several tens of millions DEM.
15,000 cubic tones of earth will have to be dug up for the pipeline, 3,600 cubic meters of cement will have to be built in, as well as 73 tones of steel armature and more than 2,000 tones of steel constructions. The total price offered for doing the job is US$ 16,789,765. They construction companies are expected to complete all the work within 18 months from the signing of the agreement.
The credit approved by the EBRD will be paid off in the next 15 years, with an interest of 4.5 to 5% a month, or with libor interest. The return of the credit would require increasing the price of the electricity, which should reach US$ 0.05 kw/h.