On the invitation of the President of the Parliament of Republic of Macedonia, Stojan Andov, today in our country will arrive the President of the Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mrs. Rita Zismut.
The visit will be a good occasion for the two presidents to mutually inform each other about all of the popular issues of common interest, but also to intensify the future development of the relationships between the two parliaments and their contacts for mutual fertile cooperation, at all.
The high-position guest from the friendly Federal Republic of Germany will meet with the President of the Republic, Mr. Kiro Gligorov too, and with the Prime-Minister, Mr. Branko Crvenkovski.
Day before yesterday, in the military barracks "Goce Delcev" in Skopje, solemnly were promoted 27 second lieutenants of the third generation and 19 officers for the command- headquarters duties from the first class of the Military Academy.
Graduation of the cadets was first congratulated by the Dean of the Military Academy, lieutenant Stojce Deskovski, who stated that the Army of the Republic of Macedonia is getting richer by the new higher-educated personnel, while the first class of officers specialized for the command-headquarters duties represents also the first generation of officers educated in our own country.
Regarding the talks of the parliamentary delegation of PDP, in the headquarters of the Albanian radio and TV, in which the agreement was achieved for founding a "all-nationalities Radio and TV" which would cover also the "Albanian areas in Macedonia", the President of the cultural-scientific manifestations of the Macedonian Muslims and the League of ethnologists express bitterness and condemn.
Realizing that it is not the first time that the parliament members of PDP, either in Albania or in other European countries, to twist the ethnic history, in the report of the presidencies of this organizations was stated that in the Republic of Macedonia there have never been nor there are any foreign, or "Albanian areas".
In the survey of the magazine "Puls" in the occasion of the Government initiative for the "purge" in its own system and administration, 67% of the surveyed citizens consider that the Government should bear the responsibility for tolerating the corruption in its own system till now, reports Makpress.
In the telephone survey of "Puls" 33% of the inquired think that these measures of the Government are on time and they will prevent the irregularities in this field, while 50% gave a negative response.
Regarding the issue that the citizens who were encompassed in the survey are well informed about the new measures of Branko Crvenkovski's Government against the corruption and the mafia in the country, proves also the information that 83% of the inquired responded to this question positively, while only 17% didn't know about this Government initiative.
The investigation of the robbery which happened between the 5th and the 7th of May, this year, in the branch office of the "Stopanska Banka" at the border pass Bogorodica, close to Gevgelija, yesterday resulted in finding the bigger part of the missing money. Namely, at 3.00 a.m. in the courtyard of Vladimir Kaevski from Gevgelija, they found a plastic bag with about 1.165.000 German marks, i.e. 65.000 less than the STOLEN 1.224.850.
This information yesterday was reported at the press conference in the Ministry of internal affairs. As stated by the deputy Minister for operational issues, Stojan Trenevski, the plastic bag full of money was found by the relatives of the suspected Vladimir Kaevski.
From the five nominated candidates, with which finally the 25-member makeup of the Supreme Court of Macedonia was supposed to be completed, the parliament members night before last night gave their support and vote only for three of the candidates. Elected are: Aleksandar Boshnakovski, judge of the District court of Skopje, Josif Lukovski, judge of the Commercial Court of Macedonia, and Sabit Kranli, judge of the municipal court of Resen. The parliament members didn't agree with the proposition of the Republic's Court Board for judges to be elected also Suretus Bislimovski, judge of the District Court of Skopje, and the lawyer Blaze Muratovski.
With this kind of a result till now there are 23 supreme judges elected. On the move is now the Republic's Court Board which will have to propose two new candidates again to the Parliament. That choice can be made by the previously applied candidates, or, the choice can be made in accordance with the newly scheduled open competition.
A big distinction and a strong support of the public was given to the Government's decision to dismiss six of the higher-up Government officials.
Although the main explanation for their replacing is that they didn't show positive results in their working, this act in the public, first of all, was understood as a beginning of a war against the grey economy, the social, economic, moral and other kinds of criminal features and the corruption. But, right after the first support the same public in Macedonia requests a specific response to the question: weather the dismissal of the six officials means real beginning of the war against the grey economy and the crime or this is some cosmetic move with several victims to cover much bigger irregularities and people?
When Government officials are being replaced for the weak results, to be more exact, for incompetence, the familiar practice in the world is that it doesn't need a big pomp and big words. These kind of changes are very logical and every-day job in all of the governments and government institutions, in all of the offices and administrations as it is usual in the companies and all the other institutions. Nothing is more normal than replacing even capable personnel because of the done mistakes. At least, there are lots of examples of that and worldly experiences.
Then why, here, this Government decision faced such a big popularity and why the Prime-Minister in person felt the need to give an explanation in front of the public for the replacing of the six officials, anyway, people from the second or the third official class, meaning bearing as big a responsibility. How come and who needed the replacement to be presented as if it comes about criminals, and not about dismissal. It was forgotten that anybody is innocent until proven the opposite and only by the law.
Obviously the Government, finally, found out that the damages from the financial crime and the illegal working are outstanding and that the discontent of the citizens is getting a critical dimensions, and now it makes such a moves to compensate for something which has long ago been lost. The amortizations which has been practiced by the Government till now that there is less and less crime in Macedonia than in the other neighboring countries, are not helping anymore. Although, honestly, you have to admit that all of the countries in transition are facing a strong influx of crime, where the citizens live in fear and their security is fallen to minimum. It is true that there the price of the life has fallen very low. But, if you mark and compare, you always have to start with your own domestic occasions. The grey economy, the organized crime, the smuggling and the corruption became so imposing and obvious in our lives that any excuse that the situation here is better than in the other countries are getting the authority in a situation to be experienced in the public as an observer without any power to do anything. And very often, the individuals from the Institution were blamed as collaborators.
Publicly facing the big weaknesses and overlooks not taking into consideration how harmful for the authority they might seem and for its position in the public, can bring lots of points, only under the condition, the determination for the war against all kind of criminal acts not to stop and these six officials not be blamed now for everything else too. Because, it is very clear that only six people from the lower layer of the authority can not be guilty for all of these features. If this is a beginning of the much more decisive actions which were publicly announced by the Prime-Minister, than, very soon there should be some bigger changes and some more significant solutions should be expected. Only like that, there can be an opinion prevailing in the public that this is not a cosmetic move of the Government and it is not all about the sacrificial lambs in order to lessen the tensions, but it is about a serious and well imagined action in the complex and difficult battle against the crime and all kinds of illegal working.
Otherwise, the present replacements will be taken as an usual camouflage in order to conceive some bigger weaknesses, bigger mistakes, i.e persons on higher positions. And the mentioned people will soon and righteously in the public get an aureole of innocent victims.
In this moment on the Ohrid coast there are 10,000 tourists. The total capacity of Ohrid is 30,000 beds, but the booking of the commercial capacities which are the basis of the Ohrid's tourist economy is weak.
Despite the lowered prices in the hotels "Metropol" and "Belvi" in Ohrid, there are only 310 tourists, while the capacities are 800 beds. The hotel "Desaret" has 250 guests, and its capacity is 580 beds. The worst is the situation with the hotel "Gorica" in which there are 115 guests while the capacity is 300 beds.
The situation with the camps is little bit better, and also the private accommodations in the villages on the Ohrid coast, such as Pestani and Trpejca, are satisfying. The private accommodations in the city, which is far away from the beaches, is half empty and the capacities have a possibility for accepting a big number of guests.
On Prespa Lake, the situation with the tourists, is also not satisfying. Despite the lowered prices, the visitation is three times smaller than last year. In the moment there are 4000 people vacationing, while the capacities of this tourist place is almost three times bigger.
Six-member delegation leaded by the member of the Board of the German automobile industry "Audi", Graham Morris, visited Macedonia. The delegation arrived in Macedonia to examine the possibility for direct production of the newest model of cars from the middle class "Audi A3", for which in the "Audi" company, there is already done project which will be performed in 5 phases.
As we find out, already in preparation is the making of a pilot project for opening plants of the future factory. The project will be an elaborated study which will consist of fitting vehicles, polishing, plants for finishing jobs, to the moment of delivering of the made product. The capacity of the production is expected to consist of 7 to 10,000 cars a year, at least so many are predicted in the first phase.
According to the first predictions, three years after the start of the production it is expected that the domestic suppliers will be making 25 to 30% of the needed parts for the vehicle - stated Teodora Guskova-Prudanova from "Asiba and MG", general importer of Audi and Volkswagen vehicles for Macedonia.
The project for modernizing the system of the flight control in Macedonia, which is being performed with the approved loan by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as high as DEM 15 million is expected to be finished in 1997.
Till now, from their own means, modernized is the information system with the equipment supplied from IBM, and there have been interventions with the modernization of the radar system also, which is supplied from Thompson. Also, in the field of telecommunications, an equipment from AT&T is supplied. For all of this US$ 2.3 million of own means are spent. The thing that is usually significant is the supplement of the ILS system for the two airports in Skopje and Ohrid, which are 24 and 22 years old retrospectively, and their expiration period is 8 to 10 years. DEM 2 million are received for this equipment.
To encircle the global system of the modernization of the flight control the choosing of the producer of the new meteorological equipment is in progress, which is planned to be open for a regular functioning in March, next year. Very soon the tender for the biggest part of the project will be scheduled too - the supplement of new radars (primary and secondary ones), radar systems, system for processing data and their joining with the flight data, which will cost around US$ 7 million. Also, there will be scheduled tenders for the battery filling, for the radio-communication system and for the navigation means. The realization of these tenders, according to the people in charge in the Flight Control Department with the Section for Civil Air Traffic, will be conducted under strict control of the EBRD.
With the modernization of these systems, according to the project which is made in cooperation with Eurocontrol, will practically enable the Macedonian Flight Control to perform 1,400 to 1,700 operations a day. In the moment, there are 500 to 600 flights a day over Macedonia.