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MILS NEWS 96-09-11Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: "Macedonian Information Liaison Service" <mils@mils.spic.org.mk>CONTENTS
MILS SUPPLEMENTMILS NEWSSkopje, 11 September, 1996[01] TO EUROPE WITH SUPPORT FROM GERMANY'Monitoring Your policy and the policy of Your government carefully, we have realized that you have achieved a great success, despite the difficult conditions you were in. Germany will continue to support Macedonia. We especially approve your policy regarding the minorities and we find it a good basis for the future policy of Macedonia. I would like to encourage you to continue what you have started and to solve all the remaining issues.' This was said by German President Roman Herzog after yesterday's continued talks with his host, Macedonian President Gligorov. German Head of State estimated the talks as significant and encouraging ones for the future development of the bilateral relations, underlying that it was very important to study the possibilities for trade and economic cooperation, and to make Macedonia more famous and more present in FR Germany. President Herzog stressed, in context of that, the initiative of the German-Greek Chamber of Commerce in Thessaloniki for projects in which Macedonia would participate by a three-party agreement.Expressing his satisfaction with the visit of his German counterpart, Macedonian President Gligorov said it was a historically righteous act, as German support to Macedonia was offered at the very beginning, when it was most needed. He said he hoped it would continue in future as well, especially in Macedonian efforts to join the EU and NATO. After the presidential talks, Macedonian Finance Minister Taki Fiti and German Ambassador to Macedonia Claus Schramaer signed an Agreement on Protection and Encouragement of Bilateral Investments. Minister Fiti described it as a mostly significant one, since Germany was one of the leading economic powers in the world and a traditional economic partner of Macedonia. Local media reported that German President Herzog had meetings with Macedonian prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski and several Ministers of the Macedonian government. He also handed the German help for pupils in Macedonia who are learning the German language. Roman Herzog ended his visit late last night and went to Ljubljana, Slovenia. [02] TALKS OF MACEDONIAN DELEGATION ON FORMER SFRY SUCCESSIONA-1 Television reported that the consultative meeting of the Macedonian delegation and the EU representative on former SFRY succession Sir Arthur Wots had began yesterday in Brussels. Macedonian team is led by Tahir Kadriu, and it involves experts on international law, such as Todor Dzunov and Sasho Georgievski. The meeting is within the framework of the bilateral talks that Sir Arthur Wots is going to have with all five countries - successors of former Yugoslavia.During the talks, basic criteria for the dividing of former SFRY property should be established, and special attention should be paid to the Memorandum for Understanding, prepared by Wots, but which most of the successor-countries had approached with reserve, as they had estimated it as being not completely in accordance with the stands of Badenteur's Commission. [03] DELEGATION OF BULGARIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY IN MACEDONIA TOMORROWA delegation of the Bulgarian Foreign Affairs Ministry, led by Vice Foreign Minister Ivan Hristov, should arrive to Macedonia tomorrow, 'Makfax' agency reported. Subject of talks will be, according to the information, the development of bilateral relations and the cooperation between the two countries in international organizations.[04] VISIT BY WEST-EUROPEAN UNION ASSEMBLY DELEGATIONDaily 'Dnevnik' read that a delegation of the West-European Union Assembly, led by Sir Dadley Smith, is expected to arrive for a three-days visit to Macedonia. The guests will meet with Macedonian president Gligorov, Parliament President Tito Petkovski and the President of the Commission for Internal Policy and Defense Ljubomir Popovski, as well as with parliamentarian groups.[05] TALKS ON IMPROVEMENT OF AUSTRALIAN-MACEDONIAN RELATIONSMr. Paolo Nocella, a member of the South Australian Parliament and a Chairman of the Multicultural and Ethnic Relations Administration, paid a visit to Macedonia from 4-8 September, in organization of the 'Australian-Macedonian Friendship Society' and 'MILS'. Australian Senator visited Skopje and Ohrid and had meetings with: Macedonian Parliament President Tito Petkovski; Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Bekjir Zhuta, Foreign Ministry representatives Jordan Veselinov and Ognen Malevski, Vice President of Macedonian Economic Chamber Milan Hrovat, bishop Kiril of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, President of Macedonian Emigrants Association Dimitar Keramitchievski; Director of Privatization Agency Verica Markovska, and with leaders of Democratic Party Petar Goshev and of VMRO-DPMNE Ljupcho Georgievski, as well as with Liberal Party Vice President Risto Ivanov. Subjects discussed during the talks were Macedonian-Australian relations in all spheres, the situation of Macedonian population in Australia, the ethnic structure in Macedonia and the situation of minorities, as well as the economic situation in Macedonia and possibilities for cooperation with Australia.Mr. Nocella gave an interview for the Macedonian Television, in which he underlined the need for improving the cultural cooperation via Macedonians in Australia, as well as the need for full diplomatic relations to be established between the two countries as soon as possible. [06] 'DNEVNIK': WAY FOR GREEK INVESTMENTS IN MACEDONIA IS OPENING57% of the shareholding company 'Strumica Tabak' was sold to the Greek company 'Michalides S.A.', while 'Sasa' mine is negotiating an investment of 'Metilinetos', a company from Athens, yesterday's issue of 'Dnevnik' daily read.Describing these business connections as opening of the way for the Greek capital in Macedonia, 'Dnevnik' stated that 'Michalides' was one of the most famous tobacco companies in the world, adding that it had bought DM 1,2 million worth shares of 'Strumica Tabak'. As alleged, this company will also take care about the construction of a new plant which would replace the old one, as well as for the marketing of the tobacco abroad. The 'Sasa'-'Metilinedos' negotiations are dealing with $3 million worth investments. 'Sasa' mine is one of the 25 enterprises with greatest losses in Macedonia, and was estimated on DM 29,8 million. In its today's issue 'Dnevnik' reads that total Macedonian- Greek economic exchange during the first six months of this year was about $60 million, which might reach a figure over $100 million till the end of the year, according to the Head of Greek Liaison Office in Skopje, Alexandros Mallias. In context of that, the paper states that contacts have been already made between Macedonian Electric Industry and Greek corporation 'PPC', between Skopje Brewery and a Greek firm for production and distribution of beverages, and between several other firms. According to 'Dnevnik', the import from Greece to Macedonia is 95% covered by the export of Macedonian products to the southern neighbour. [07] DAY OF INDEPENDENCE MARKED IN EUROPEAN CAPITAL CITIESMacedonian media reported that Macedonian Embassy in Paris had organized an official reception the day before yesterday, on the occasion of the Day of Independence. It was attended by about 300 guests, including significant representatives of French political and cultural circles, a great number of Ambassadors and by Macedonian citizens in France. The reception was also attended by Senator Robert Badenteur, former President of the Arbitrage Commission for Former Yugoslavia and current President of the Group for Macedonian-French Friendship in the Senate of France. Media also reported about official receptions in Brussels, Bonn and Ljubljana, which had also been attended by important guests, such as Slovenian President Milan Kuchan.[08] LAW ON TERRITORIAL DIVIDING OF MACEDONIA DISCUSSEDLiberal Party yesterday organized a pre-commission discussion in the Macedonian Parliament for the Draft-Law on Territorial Dividing of Macedonia. The participants were representatives of parliamentarian and non-parliamentarian political parties, scientists and Macedonian Minister of Justice Vlado Popovski. Liberal Party leader Stojan Andov said the discussion had been organized for the public to be informed about things which the Government had talked about behind closed doors. Liberals' remarks were: that the Law had been not designed according to precise criteria; that this kind of dividing was too expensive for the country; and that this and the Law on the City of Skopje should be passed with a two-thirds majority, and not with a simple majority. Dragisha Miletic of the Democratic Party of Serbs in Macedonia stated that the number of 120 municipalities would be a 'too clumsy apparatus', which would create rich and poor communities.Current Mayor of Skopje Jove Kekenovski said citizens should be given the right to declare themselves about the dividing of the city on a referendum, and a law to be passed afterwards. MAAK-Conservative Party President Strasho Angelovski said the Government had changed the map of municipalities under pressure of PDP, by which it had sold the territory of west Macedonia. Hisein Ramadani stated that Albanians were also not satisfied with the dividing, since urban communities would be pushed into the rural ones. The Professor at the Faculty of Law in Skopje d-r Borche Davitkovski presented his opinion that the Law passing involved too much politics, and too little protection of citizens, while Mersim Biljali said the Law was backed by political marketing only. Tomislav Stojanovski said he would require individual declaring about the Law at the Parliament session today. Vladimir Golubovski stated that Macedonia was entitled to a Law on Territorial Dividing which would inherit the national strategy of the Macedonian nation. The opinion of Academic Blazhe Ristovski was that changing the Law due to an ultimatum of a political party that it would leave the coalition unless its requests are fulfilled could not hold, because that was the same party which did not vote for the Constitution, which had been accepted by whole Europe in the meantime. Justice Minister Popovski said the Law on the City of Skopje was harmonized after four meetings with City Assembly representatives. To the accusations that the Government had sold west Macedonia, Popovski stated that a comparison with 'Ilirida' would have been possible if all west Macedonia had been put in a single municipality, which was not the case. According to him, the Law concept did not affect the sovereignty of the country, as municipalities were a part of the civil society. Draft-Law on Territorial Dividing, determining the local self-government areas and proposals for passing Laws on Electoral Lists, Electoral IDs and on the City of Skopje are items on the Agenda of today's 53rd Parliament session. [09] SOCIALIST PARTY ABOUT THE LAW ON TERRITORIAL DIVIDINGA-1 Television yesterday reported an announcement of the Socialist Party, by which the Draft-Law on Territorial Dividing of Macedonia was estimated as not designed in accordance with clearly developed criteria, i.e. without using the expert studies which dealt with those issues. If those methods were used, said the announcement, new territorial dividing would not have been made following somebody's interests or will, and it would not be necessary to make compromises without taking care about the state and national interests especially in west Macedonian municipalities of Tetovo and Gostivar and others.Following these reasons, Socialist Party of Macedonia will propose several amendments, by which they would insist on certain deviations to be corrected and to create a Law that would meet the needs and wants of the citizens. [10] CALL ON THE GOVERNMENT TO WITHDRAW THE NEW LAW VERSIONYouth organizations of Tetovo branches of VMRO-DPMNE, Democratic Party, Social Democratic Alliance and Democratic Party of Macedonia had called on Macedonian Government to withdraw the last version of the Draft-Law on Territorial Dividing of Macedonia and to propose a new one, by which interests of all entities in Tetovo would be satisfied, 'Dnevnik' daily read. Their announcement said that this Law was of a life importance for all Macedonian citizens, which is why narrow interests of political parties, calculations and bargaining should be excluded.Meanwhile, Democratic Party of Macedonia announced that they would boycott the local elections in case the Government passes this Draft-Law on Territorial Dividing. Most of their objections referred to the dividing of municipalities in west Macedonia, especially of Tetovo and Gostivar ones. [11] PROTEST MEETING IN KICHEVO ORGANIZED BY PDPAPDPA yesterday organized a protest meeting in Kichevo on which discontent with the new territorial dividing of Macedonia was expressed. Most of disagreements expressed referred to the suggested forming of new municipalities in Kichevo, which was said would change their national constitution. As Macedonian Radio reported, the participants were addressed to by the MP Sali Ramadani, who stressed that 'only meetings were taking place for the time being, but that in future other protests gatherings would be organized'.PDP and NDP representatives did not attend the meeting, since, estimating these meetings as pre-electoral marketing of PDPA, they concluded they would not join such protests any more. [12] PDP REPRESENTATIVES IN TIRANA'Makfax' agency reported that PDP leader Abdurahman Aliti and two other PDP members Ismet Ramadani and Abduljali Veseli had met with ruling Albanian Democratic Party leader Tritan Shehu in Tirana last weekend. The information said that the purpose of the meeting had been getting two parties closer to each other. Shehu informed them that his party's attitude was to cooperate with all Albanian political forces, and underlined the need for a closer cooperation with PDP. According to Radio Tirana, Shehu said political parties in Macedonia should develop relations of mutual understanding and constructive cooperation. He also stressed that it was necessary for legal democratic, political and institutional preparations to be used by Albanian political parties to realize the rights of Albanians.[13] MACEDONIAN ETHNOLOGISTS ON ALBANIAN-MACEDONIAN RELATIONSAssociation of Ethnologists of the Republic of Macedonia yesterday issued an announcement regarding the Declaration of the Albanian Foreign Ministry, by which it had rejected the accusations that Tirana was interfering in internal matters of Macedonia referring to the Albanian minority rights. As Macedonian Radio reported the announcement, it said that rights of Albanians in Macedonia were above the international norms, while existence of Macedonians in Albania is still denied, their number is minimized and they have no rights in the field of education in their mother tongue. It was asked why there were no primary schools in Macedonian language in Golo Brdo, Elbasan, Durres, Korce and other places where several thousands of Macedonians live and still speak Macedonian.MILS SUPPLEMENT[14] 'Production Growth Only for Showing Off?'('Dnevnik', 10 September, 1996)After many years of catastrophic results, Macedonian statisticians 'estimated' industrial production growth in the last few months, and the politicians used it for showing off, i.e. to say that something important is going on with the Macedonian economy, while the negative trend is seizing. Experts say that, however, statistic data should be referred to with reserve. The industrial production has increased for 3.8% in the first six months of 1996 compared with the same period in 1995. The production growth was the biggest in the filed of reproduction materials. But in all other fields, such as tourism, transport, trade exchange with foreign countries and trade in general, the trend of decline is continuing. Statistic experts have different opinions of how should this growth be understood: some of them find the industrial production growth a step forward, while others think it is a partial result only which has no effect on the gross social product (GSP). 'This growth, although a minor one, still can influence the GSP,' Mirjana Cvetkovska, the Chairman of the Industry Department at the Statistics Institute, said. According to her, the results are significant, although the industrial branches have not been using their capacities as previously and although the number of their employees had been reduced. Vesna Spasevska from the Department for GSP Calculation has a similar opinion: 'Following these results, one should expect a GSP growth. It had declined for 50% in the last 5 years, so it is normal to expect its growth for at least 2%,' she said. Pero Klinovski, the Chairman of the Department for GSP Calculation, and Slave Risteski, a Professor of Statistics at the Faculty of Economy in Skopje, have different opinions. 'Current production growth of 3% has no influence on the economic growth for the time being. That injection can not cure the GSP, i.e. it neither contributes to the GSP growth, nor shows that anything is going on in the country,' Professor Risteski said. Klinovski also does not believe that industrial production growth of 2-3% can compensate the bad results in other spheres: 'We can not speak about growth when all the other fields are declining, when 70% of salaries are spent on food and decline is expected in agriculture,' he said. The experts agree that positive changes have taken place in production, but they also warn that much more time is needed for essential changes to happen both in the economy and in life in general. Risteski said the registered small production growth referred to the field of industrial production only, while in agriculture it has remained at the same level, and as for the tourism - there is not any at all. Those fields that used to be the leaders in the national employment (construction, textile and tobacco industry) are either half smaller or gone. 'This is only a partial improvement. In cases of a previous trend of a long term decline, the smallest growth of production in certain branches would result in a growth of the industrial production in general. In term of absolute values, however, the production is at a much lower level than in all previous years. It is necessary for all branches to be enlivened to achieve positive results in the GSP, and than we could speak about an economic growth,' Risteski said. Gross social product, the most realistic index of the economic situation in the country, has been declining for several years and has reached almost half of the previous value. Namely, while Macedonia was a part of former Yugoslavia, it had an average value of $1,600 GNP per capita, which was lower than the Yugoslav one. Current GSP is from $600-$700. 'I think that we have reached a critical point and there will be no further decline, because most of the social- economic transformations had been accomplished. Therefore, we should expect, although not so fast, all the economic activities, including production, to enliven,' Risteski predicted. (end)mils news 11 September, 1996Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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