At the invitation of the Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, Macedonia's Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski will visit the Republic of Turkey from the 16th to the 18th of this month.
The Macedonian delegation will be comprised of the Minister of Finance Jane Miljovski, minister-spokesman Gjuner Ismail, and the Under Secretary in the Foreign Ministry Victor Gaber.
Whilst in Turkey, the delegation will also meet with the President of the Republic of Turkey Suleyman Demirel and the chairman of the Turkish Assembly Husamedin Dzindorluk.
Yesterday, Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov received the new Turkish ambassador to Macedonia Unal Marasli, who submitted the letters of recall of the to-date ambassador and the credentials for his appointment.
Macedonia's first participation in the Conference for regional security, taking place from June 11 to 13 in Sofia, also presents the first phase of Macedonia's association in NATO, the parliamentarians Ljubomir Popovski and Dimitar Trpenovski, participants in the Conference, said.
The central theme at this Conference, organized by the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, was security in the Balkans and the role of NATO, as well as its expansion to the Central and Eastern European countries.
According to the Macedonian representatives at the Conference, it was underlined that the existence of Macedonia as an independent and sovereign state is an important factor of stability in the Balkans. Thus, an appeal was sent out for regulation of the relations between the countries in the Balkans.
"The declaration of independence of the Republic of Macedonia and its policy for peace and understanding were of crucial significance for the peace in the Balkan region," Stojan Andov said in the extensive interview published in the Sofia newspaper "Standard," Makpress reports.
The chairman of the Macedonian Parliament underlines that Macedonia will continue with the policy of equal readiness for cooperation with all four neighbors.
On the issue of the Macedonian-Bulgarian relations, Andov stated: "The inter-state relations started very good at first. Maybe I have a wrong impression, but it seems to me the official contacts have become more rare. Bulgaria and Macedonia have no interest in creating a vacuum in their relations. It wouldn't be good, because of internal political reasons or problems from the past, to create obstacles before the civilized co-inhabitants."
The Republic of Macedonia was positively evaluated at the regular session of the UN Sanctions Committee, held in Vienna recently.
The cooperation between the Macedonian Customs and the team of the UN mission for the implementation of the sanctions, in Macedonia, also received a "thumbs up."
The U.S. Customs has promised Macedonia technical help and various helping devices during the recent visit of the chief director Thomas Adams.
A working visit was held in the Macedonian Government yesterday between the Commission for privatization, led by its president Risto Ivanov and representatives of the Agency for transformation of companies with state-owned capital, Makpress reports.
According to unofficial information, the meeting focused on the Government's criticism of the lack of insight into the privatization process, about who makes decisions on appeals, as well as the criteria according to which the agency is grading the privatization programs.
The Constitutional Court yesterday started an initiative for re-examining the latest increase in electricity prices, in April. The "Electrodistribution" made this decision on April 12, while the Government made a decision to determine the highest level of electricity prices, which mainly apply to large consumers.
The Supreme Court of Macedonia received four new judges: Ljiljana Ingilizova, Jovan Kalajlioski, Violeta Josifova and Faton Pacuku, who were elected in Parliament yesterday.
The MPs supported the proposal for the adoption of a Law on road transport. Many MPs expressed the fear that this law could mean the collapse of even the largest transportation firms, however, in the end, they all agreed that it is necessary to bring order in this field.
Transport Minister Dimitar Buzlevski said that the to- date liberal regulations in the road transport have been detrimental to its organization, lowered the quality of the services and brought about a reduction in prices.
The member of Parliament Sami Ibrahimi sent a note to Parliament yesterday, informing that he is no longer a member of the PDP group of representatives in Parliament. Ibrahimi also states his dissatisfaction with the work of some Government ministers, from PDP ranks.
The Seismological Observatory with the Faculty of Mathematics in Skopje detected an earthquake yesterday, at 14.12 hours, with an epicenter some 35 km north of Skopje. The earthquake, which had an intensity of IV degrees according to the Mercalli scale, was felt in Skopje, Kumanovo and other regions in northern Macedonia.
The Swiss Government has made a decision to allocate Macedonia 10 million Swiss francs. Of these funds, 8 million will be used to finance the protection of the Ohrid Lake, and the rest, to help Macedonia pay back its debts to the World bank.
The frequency of the vehicles from FRY toward RM has decreased even 50% in comparison with the first days of June, last year. The reason for this is the tax of 40 dinars and 100 per vehicle, that has to be paid by all FRY citizens upon exiting their country. There is also a noticeable drop in bus traffic between the nearest towns from Macedonia and Serbia. For now, Macedonian bus transporters are still servicing all regular lines between Macedonia and FRY. However, they are thinking of reducing the number of lines.
The Bitola branch of "Stopanska banka" is now an independent financial institutions. This was decided in accord with the People's Bank of Macedonia.
The Commercial-investment bank "Kumanovo" has also separated from "Stopanska banka."
The Commercial-investment bank is starting with shareholder's deposits of over 6,635,000 DM, mainly private capital with assets totalling 42 million DM. The bank is founded by 129 companies with private capital and 69 companies with mixed capital ownership, which have transferred their overall capital to the newly-formed bank.
By March 30, this year, Macedonia owed $1.42 billion to multi-lateral, bilateral and private creditors.
The largest part of the debt goes to the commercial banks (private creditors) or $690.3 million, of which $306 million presents interest.
The newly obtained debts, according to experts, are issued under much more favorable conditions than the old ones. That is to say that Macedonia will start paying back the STAND-BY arrangement with the IMF, as well as the second installment of the STF arrangement from next year, up to the next six years, with a variable interest rate, which is determined at 5.5% at the moment.
The Republic will have to pay back the FESAK credit from the World bank, $85 million heavy, within 35 years, with no interests, whereby the payments will start from the year 2001.
The social loan of $14 million will be paid back under the same conditions, just like the $ 14.5 million loan from EBRD, intended for the flight control system, for which payments will start from next year, up to the year 2004. The loan for the long- distance pipe line Bitola-Skopje, amounting to $22 million, will be paid back 15 years, starting 1997.