Within the frame of the official visit to the People's Republic of China, the Minister for foreign relations of the Republic of Macedonia, Stevo Crvenkovski, yesterday was received by the vice-President of the PR of China, Rong Jiren.
Greeting the Minister Crvenkovski, the vice-President Rong Jiren pointed out that this is the first official visit of a high ranking Macedonian official to the PR of China and that it represents an important moment in the development of friendly relations and cooperation between the two countries. These relations have their foundations in the past decades and they acquired a special quality and intensity after the Republic of Macedonia proclaimed its independence.
Minister Crvenkovski was informed that as a sign of good will the Red Cross of China has decided to allocate humanitarian aid for the refugees in Macedonia valued at US$50.000.
Within the frame of his visit Mr. Crvenkovski officially opened the Embassy of the Republic of Macedonia in Peking, which has been functioning for one year.
According to "Makpres" Crvenkovski yesterday had a meeting in Peking with the deputy-Prime Minister and Minister for foreign affairs, Chien Chichen. During the meeting it was concluded that the bilateral cooperation, which has a several decades long tradition, is noticing progress in all fields. Mr. Crvenkovski invited the deputy-Prime Minister and Minister for foreign affairs, Chien Chichen to make an official visit to the Republic of Macedonia. The invitation was accepted. During the meeting Ministers Crvenkovski and Chichen signed a Protocol for cooperation between the two Ministries for foreign affairs.
Mr.Stevo Crvenkovski also met with the Minister of culture of the PR of China, Liu Jonde, as well as with the deputy-Minister for foreign trade and economic cooperation, Shi Guangshen.
The delegation of both houses of the British Parliament, under the leadership of the baroness Deivid, yesterday made a visit to Ohrid. In the municipal assembly the guests were had a meeting with Atanas Ivanoski, vice-president of the Municipal assembly of Ohrid. During the meeting Ivanoski informed the guests about Ohrid, its development, its tourist capacities and opportunities, as well as with the problems that the citizens are faced in realizing their rights.
The guests from Great Britain were especially interested about the functioning of the municipality, the local administration, the system of primary education, and especial interest was shown about the realization of the rights of the nationalities that live in this municipality. The guests also showed interest in the activities and measures to preserve the Lake of Ohrid.
In the exclusive interview for the weekly "Puls" the Minister for foreign affairs of the Republic of Italy, Suzana Anjeli, expressed her great satisfaction in the excellent development of relations with the Republic of Macedonia, pointing out that this was especially confirmed by last weeks visit to Rome by President Gligorov and the Minister Crvenkovski.
"This visit was an opportunity to reaffirm the friendly relations between Italy and Macedonia, to verify the perspectives of our cooperation and to confirm Italy's interest in the consolidation of Macedonia, which is an important factor for the stability of the region of the southern Balkan". pointed out Anjeli.
The Italian Minister for foreign affairs pointed out the support that her country is giving Macedonia in being accepted to the OSCE membership and the activities within the frame of the Central-European Initiative. Within this context, Suzana Anjeli underlined the importance of the corridor of the Inter-Balkan transversal that links Bari with the Black Sea, passing through Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria, for which Italy has secured a fund of one billion and 795 million lira.
Our student delegation returned these days from Upsala, Sweden, were from the 22 - 29 May for the first time they participated in the European student bureau. This is the highest association of students from the European countries with over 20 million members. Our students spoke about the situation in the higher education in Macedonia and the structural reforms that are in progress at our Universities and the efforts to improve its autonomy within the frame of the system. Several bilateral and multilateral meetings with other delegations were realized. Our delegation secured our future participation in European projects and access to data banks through a network for the exchange of information.
A great success for the Macedonian delegation was the election of our representatives to the leadership of this European student association and the application to organize a similar seminar in Macedonia were the topic of discussion would be the problems of higher education in the countries in transition. The decision about this application will be made this autumn. Our students were also nominated for membership to the International union of students under the constitutional name of the Republic of Macedonia.
"The issuing of bans for the work of a large number of private radio and TV stations (over 60) represents an act that is not in compliance with the Law and with logic. A plan that was hastily prepared and realized with non-expert methods, using the old law of the SFRY that is not in compliance with the democratic processes in the country, which doesn't at all foresee the existence of private and commercial radio-TV stations. In fact with this they are trying to hide the situation with the several year long absence of the work of the expert services of the Ministry of transportation and communication. Even though for a long period of time it was being requested, they haven't done anything to prepare the legislation for this field of work". This was said during yesterdays press conference organized by the Coordinating board of the Association of commercial radio and TV stations of Macedonia.
It was pointed out that two constructive meetings had already been held with the authorized minister, Dimitar Buzlevski, when it was agreed that it is necessary to create legal framework for the functioning of the stations in the intermediate period up to the adoption of the Law for radio- difusion. More precisely that within 15 to 30 days the Ministry will prepare a model of intermediate conditions that will be presented to the Association so that it may offer its remarks. On the basis of these intermediate conditions the Ministry will issue temporary work permits. To acquire such a temporary permit each station will have to submit a request that will contain all the appropriate documentation and a list of the technical equipment that the station has at its disposal.
The inflation in May, according to the data from the State statistics bureau, was 0.9%. During this month the price of the agricultural products noticed a 12.9% drop, this was due to the 17.1% drop in the price of vegetables, while the price of fruits noticed an increase of 11.9%.
The living expenses in May, in comparison with the previous month, noticed an increase of 0.1%. Within the frame of the living expenses, a 1.6% drop was noticed among the price of furniture, and a 0.7% drop in the price of food.
The Macedonian construction firm "Pelagonija" successfully finished the construction of objects at the Training Center for tank warfare in Kuwait, valued at US$ 38 million. The contract to carry out the construction, in compliance with the project, was signed in 1993 with the Ministry of defence of Kuwait.
The training center has 19 objects on 5 locations, containing 40,000 m2, while construction was finished within the agreed 26 months. The project was carried out by 250 construction workers from the construction firm "Pelagonija".
According to Gene Bundovski, director for this project, the Ministry of defence of Kuwait has announced that it will hire the construction firm "Pelagonija" for several new projects.
As of yesterday, several banks in Macedonia drastically reduced the interest rates for new credits. With this came to life the inter-bank agreement for the policy of interest rates, accepted by the Association for banking at the Chamber of commerce of Macedonia.
With this agreement it was decided that the interest rates of the banks will be limited to maximum 30% annually or 2,2% monthly interest rate.
As of yesterday the active interest rates at "Stopanska banka" were 30% annually, while the passive interest rates were 20 to 27%. Yesterday, the executive board of the "Komercijalna banka" also decided to determine the active interest rates at 30% annually.
Otherwise, the three largest banks in Macedonia initiated the drop in the interest rates. These banka are "Stopanska banka", "Komercijalna banka" and "Makedonska banka".
By the end of the year, unless unforeseeable difficulties do not appear and if everything goes ahead according to plan, only from the export of cigarets (without the sales of fermented tobacco) it is expected that Macedonia will realize a profit of US$ 77.5 million.
It is expected that the largest buyers of Macedonian cigarets will be the USA, Japan, Germany and Italy, while certain quantities are also expected to be exported to Russia, the Czek republic, Poland and other countries.
As far as the Macedonian raw tobacco is concerned, its price on the foreign market is US$ 3.8 per kilogram. It is expected that from US$ 30 million of raw tobacco will be sold. With this the entire income is expected to reach US$ 100 million.
From the 6 - 9th of June, the 45th International fair of consumer goods, repromaterial and equipment will be held in Skopje. On the fair ground of 15,000 m2, 195 firms will present over 20,000 products from the metalworks, machines, from the motor industry, chemicals, meat industry, bakery-mills, milk products and other.
Companies from Macedonia, Croatia, FR Yugoslavia, Turkey, Germany, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Hungary, Finland, Italy, Albania and Israel will participate in the fair.