Macedonia's Defense Minister Blagoy Handziski yesterday visited the U.S. military bases Fort Mairo in Virginia and Fort Brag in North Carolina, as part of his official visit to the U.S.A..
Yesterday's official U.S. announcement from minister Handziski's meeting with the U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry, which was held yesterday, says that both sides agreed it was essential to stop the fighting going on in former Yugoslavia, to deter further expansion, particularly to the south, and to keep the UN forces in Macedonia, with full guarantees for their security and mandate.
Of the bilateral questions, the UNPREDEP activities in Macedonia were reviewed, which recently received a new mandate from the UN Security Council.
The meeting Handziski-Perry also focused on the ways of putting US$ 250,000 to the use, which the U.S. administration will ask from Congress, through the teaching program, which would help in the formation of a professional army in Macedonia.
The U.S. Secretary of Defense and the State Department also additionally asked for US$ 1 million for the Macedonian Government, as part of the Warsaw initiative of President Clinton, is said in the U.S. announcement.
Reuters yesterday's conveyed parts of the press conference of Perry and Handziski. Perry repeated that a number of American and other soldiers could be sent to Macedonia, provided the UN forces withdrew from Bosnia and Croatia. Following the Monday meeting, Handziski told the press that he had asked Washington to help his country, to put pressure on the UN in order to lift the international military embargo against Macedonia. Handziski also expressed optimism concerning the settling of the larger political differences between Macedonia and Greece, that compelled Greece to close the border. He said that the official representatives of the U.S.A. have improved the contacts with Greece, following the orders of President Clinton.
"We really expect the misunderstandings with the Republic of Greece to be overcome soon and that full diplomatic relations will soon be established," stated Handziski. "That will have a considerable effect also on the improvement of the relations and overall stability on the south of the Balkans."
From yesterday, the visa for entering the Republic of Albania costs Macedonian citizens US$ 25, whereby the price of the visa has been returned to the amount charged over the last three years.
In the last three weeks, the price of the visa was reduced US$ 10, and the Albanian public and official Tirana also expected the Republic of Macedonia to reduce the price of the visa for Albanian citizens travelling to Macedonia.
Otherwise, Macedonia has a legally determined price of the Macedonian visa - 900 denars at the border crossings and US$ 10 at the Macedonian embassies, which is the same for all citizens from the countries with which Macedonia has a visa regime.
Albania charges different prices to citizens from different countries, so citizens from FR Yugoslavia only have to pay US$ 11.
In the absence of a Law for radio-diffusion, which has resulted with some 250 private radio and TV stations in Macedonia, the Government has decided to establish some order in this sphere.
In yesterday's press conference, the Minister of Traffic and Relations Dimitar Buzlevski explained that as part of this action, so far, 24 decisions for the ban of certain private radio-diffusion stations have been issued. The action started in Skopje, and will continue throughout the Republic. Buzlevski stated that the "aim of the action is to make enough room for those who seriously want to deal with radio-diffusion."
In response to numerous questions from the press, Buzlevski stated that it was correct that not one of the 250 stations possessed the necessary work permit and the Ministry would soon start issuing these documents.
Spokesman Ismail said that Macedonia was, slowly but surely, becoming one of the countries excelling in piracy. He explained that the vast liberalism in this field has led to anarchy, aggression in the informative and cultural space and disrespect of the basic standards in the sphere of radio- diffusion. The establishment of order in the radio-diffusion sphere, according to Ismail, will be done according to the legal norms, which are now at disposal.
As a sign of protest against the way in which the Ministry of Traffic and Relations is passing down decisions banning the work of the private RTV stations, without any rules or law, as it is announced, the two associations of private radio and TV stations will start making short breaks and interruptions in their programs. In those intervals, they will broadcast protests in which the competent institutions are demanded to urgently pass a Law for radio-diffusion, the technical norms and the issue of temporary work permits.
This was announced in yesterday's press conference. The interruptions will be on a daily basis, the televisions from 19.01 hours, one minute, and the radio-stations from 16 to 16.30 hours, until their demands are not met. The protest will also contain the telephone numbers of the President of State, the Prime Minister, Speaker of Parliament and the Minister of Traffic and Relations, in order to enable the citizens to address them with their own opinion.
According to the information of the Ministry of Development, the solvency of the companies is constantly deteriorating, whereby the number of insolvent companies (both private and state-owned) is growing, as well as their debts. That figure, at the end of March, 1995, was 2,212 insolvent companies, with close to 89,000 employees and unpaid debts of up to MKD 4 billion. More than half of these companies are insolvent, i.e. with blocked accounts sometimes for 60 days or 60 days in the last 75.
The retail prices in April, this year, in comparison with the previous month, went up 0.6%, and the living costs 0.3%. Over the past 12 months, the number of employees has dropped 17.60%, while the number of employees in the non-economy, over the same period, has jumped from 84,000 to 85,200.
From month to month, the number of people seeking jobs is also increasing, and their number in March, this year, was 198,700. The overall revenue for financing the public needs is constantly growing, some hundreds of millions of denars per month, only to reach a total of MKD 5.3 billion in March, and in this constellation, the Republic and municipal budgets are best- off, while the situation in the Pension fund and the Unemployment fund is also improving little by little, at least as far as the income side is concerned.
The total hard currency transactions on the foreign currency market reached US$ 100 million in March, while over that period, the National Bank bought US$ 6.6 million and sold US$ 4.7 million. In February, the NBM bought US$ 4 million, and sold US$ 4.4 million.
The foreign currency reserves were estimated at US$ 169.9 million in February, and in March - US$ 178.9 million.
Last year, mushroom exports brought Macedonia some US$ 12 million. The biggest export was achieved with Italy of US$ 7,462,000 and the remaining quantity was exported to France, Germany, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Hungary, Austria and other countries in the world. The price of US$ 7 per kilogram was set for the exported product.
As it was said in yesterday's session of the Grouping for mushrooms with the Macedonian Chamber of Commerce, there are possibilities for even greater exports. An emphasis was placed on the need to determine standards that would suit the criteria of the world market, as that production will be only export- oriented. Already 75 firms in the country are dealing with this business.
The Minister of Urbanization, Construction, Environment Protection, Yorgo Sundovski and prof. Andrey Tokarev, co-ordinator of the activities of the Macedonian consortium "Vardar Valley" signed an agreement with representatives of the National company for the exploitation of Rona, whereby Macedonia is allocated additional help of FF 500,000, for realization of the ecological part of the feasibility study. This sum is added to the sum of FF 2.6 million, for preparation of the feasibility study.
These funds will help in the preparation of the documents and study on the ecological protection of the water resources from the Vardar valley. Namely, this includes the river Vardar and its basin, i.e. for protection of these waters from pollution.
The second international car fair in Skopje "Autoexpo '95" will be held from May 19-25, this year. 80 exhibitors from 23 countries will appear at the fair, and it will be held on an area of 15,000 m2 of closed and 7,000 m2 of open space. Some 300 exhibits will be on display, latest achievements in the car industry in the world.
Beside cars, motorcycles, vehicles for the transportation of passengers and goods, this year's fair will also display the latest achievements in the garage-service equipment, car tyres, motor oils, paints and lacquers, autocosmetics and other products and spare parts, necessary for the maintenance and equipment of motor vehicles.
The U.S. company "Rich International Airways" based in Miami, Florida, announced these days that during the summer, it will introduce charter inter-continental flights from the U.S.A. to Macedonia. With that purpose, a delegation of the Sector for security of the civil air traffic from the Federal Air Traffic Administration of the U.S.A. paid a visit to the Skopje airport - the main airport in Macedonia.
The flights on the destination U.S.A. - Macedonia will be carried out in aircraft of the type DC-8-862, on the line Detroit-London-Skopje-London-Detroit and on June 28, July 20 and August 3 and 31, this year, through the tour operator "World Travel Tourist." This airline has also announced one more flight on the same route, but with the aircraft "Lokid 1011." It is believed that there will be quite some interest for these flights among Macedonian immigrants in the U.S.A..