MAK-NEWS 21/11/95 (M.I.C.)

From: "M.I.C." <mic@ITL.MK>

Macedonian Information Centre Directory

CONTENTS

SKOPJE, NOVEMBER 21, 1995 (MIC)

[01] NEGOTIATIONS STARTING SOON

The European Commission accepted the proposal yesterday, with which the EU Commissioner for foreign affairs Hans Van Den Broek gives the basis for the negotiations between the Republic of Macedonia and the European Union.

Makpress reports that the negotiations are set to start shortly, and their final goal will be signing an Agreement on cooperation and trade between the two parties.

The short document, drawn up by the Commissioners' team, provides the guidelines on which the EU Council of foreign ministers was briefed yesterday.

The ministers are to present the text to their working groups, and after a positive assessment, the Council of ministers will be able to give the EU a mandate to start off negotiations with the Republic of Macedonia.

The document of the European Commission says that the future Agreement on cooperation and trade comes together with a financial protocol that promises Macedonia a credit of 150 million ECU, which will be allocated by the European Investment Bank.

In the same protocol, the European Union promises to reduce the interest rates on the credit for 20 million ECU, from its own budget. The Agreement itself is accompanied by a special agreement on transportation, which will regulate the circulation of goods in the Republic of Macedonia and the countries of the Union.

[02] STRENGTHENING THE "PARTNERSHIP"

"Macedonia, in view of the fact that it has become the 27th member of the 'Partnership for peace' programme, will be interested in discussing ways of crossing from the implementation of the general agreement on membership in 'Partnership for peace,' to real inclusion in the activities of the programme," the U.S. Secretary of Defence William Perry stated in the U.S. Defence Department, explaining the goals of his upcoming visit to the Republic of Macedonia.

"The Macedonians will undoubtedly be interested in the future of the embargo on arms imports and the future presence of the United States in Macedonia, upon passing to the next level of our engagement in the region," Perry said.

The U.S. Defence Secretary also expressed the hope that, provided the circumstances allow it, he will hold a brief meeting with the President of the Republic of Macedonia Kiro Gligorov.

Asked about the future of the U.S. and UN soldiers in Macedonia, seeing that following an eventual peace agreement on former Yugoslavia the UN troops will be replaced by NATO forces, Perry said that, for the time being, no decision has been made to this effect.

[03] DEVELOPMENT OF OVERALL RELATIONS

As part of his visit to the Republic of Macedonia, the Deputy Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of Korea Chang Riong signed a protocol on cooperation between the two countries with the Under Secretary of the Macedonian Foreign Ministry Victor Gaber, in the Club of Representatives yesterday. The protocol foresees the development of economic, political, cultural, sports and other connections between the two countries, and continuation of the cooperation which started after Macedonia became independent, with the appointment of a Korean ambassador to Macedonia.

[04] CLOSER BUSINESS LINKS WITH ALBANIA

A delegation of the Macedonian Chamber of Commerce, led by its president Dushan Petreski stayed in Tirana yesterday.

The visit is aimed at surmising the interests for the establishment of cooperation between the firms of the two countries, before all, in the food and wine production industry.

According to Petreski's proposal, made at the meeting with Albanian Prime Minister Aleksandar Meksi, agreements on economic exchange, protection of investments, on avoiding double taxation, payment operations, as well as transportation, should be signed by the end of the year.

Petreski informed that Prime Minister Meksi promised to make personal efforts on this plan.

[05] GREEK PRESIDENT AGAINST MILITARY ALLIANCES

In yesterday's interview for the Sofia daily "Standard," the Greek President Constantinos Stefanopoulos said, in answering the question whether the normalization of relations between Skopje and Athens goes to Sofia's disadvantage, that he "can't understand some people's concern over the fact that the climate in the Balkans is improving."

The development of the situation in former Yugoslavia, in the background of the negotiations in Dayton, will be one of the unavoidable topics, Makpress reports.

In the interview for "Standard," the Greek President expressed hope that the problem can be solved under the auspices of the UN, emphasizing that it is high time not only for former Yugoslavia, but the neighboring Balkan countries, as well, to prove that they are for peace.

In the interview, Stefanopoulos also said that he was against "triangles, alliances and other schemes that provoke military structures" in the Balkans, and that he was in favour of the creation of a "zone of peaceful cooperation between the Balkan states," whose expansion, in the future, could cover the whole region of the Balkans.

[06] DEFENCE MINISTERS TO VISIT RM

The Ministers of Defence of troop-contributing nations of the United Nations Preventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP), will visit the Republic of Macedonia and the Force on November 23, 1995. The visitors will include: Minister Hans Haekkerup of Denmark, Minister Anneli Taina of Finland, Minister Thage G. Peterson of Sweden, Minister Joergen Kosmo of Norway and Secretary of Defence William Perry of the U.S.A..

During their visit to Skopje, the ministers will have meetings with the Macedonian authorities and spend time with national battalions serving with UNPREDEP.

[07] TRANSFORMATION OF 217 AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS

At yesterday's session, chaired by Branko Crvenkovski, the Macedonian Government determined and reviewed the Proposal for the adoption of a Law on transformation of the companies and other organizations with state-owned capital, dealing with agricultural land. The process of transformation is to include a total of 217 organizations, including: agricultural organizations, as a whole, agricultural cooperatives and their economies. This Law excludes water supply, fishing and other organizations from the transformation.

Furthermore, at yesterday's 50th session, the Government reviewed and accepted the Information on the readiness and possibilities for the construction of the Hydrosystem Zletovica-Probishtip. According to the Information, the system will be used for a number of purposes, for supplying drinking water for four municipalities, for irrigation, and in the third and final phase, for the production of electric energy.

In addition, the Government determined the text of the Draft-decision for amendments and supplements to the Decision for the determination of highways and regional roads in the Republic of Macedonia. In effect, this draft-decision precisely defines the start and end of every highway and regional road route.

[08] EXPORTS TOTALLING 7.2 MILLION DEM

The industry for car parts "Ruen" from Kochani, despite the extraordinarily difficult economic conditions, is still one of the most successful firms in the Kochani economy and a major exporter. In the first nine months of this year, it exported finished products to the Western European and Near East markets, to the amount of 7.2 million DEM. This presents 48% of the overall revenue. A fact that particularly encourages is that over 70% of the realized exports are on the basis of cash payments, which provides the basic balance and stability of the firm. The other part is covered with compensation deals, although that applies mainly to the exports realized with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

However, although all these indicators seem very important, recently there is a realistic danger of disruption of the production-financial courses. This is evidenced by the fact that the use of the capacities is constantly dropping and has fallen to the lowest 35 to 40%, which is an alarm in itself. This threatens the liquidity of the firm, and there are also frequent cases of blockage of the firms' account. In view of these circumstances, the employees in "Ruen" are coming across the problem of receiving their pay cheques on time, which is going with more and more difficulty every month.

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