MILS NEWS 18/03/96

From: "M.I.L.S." <mils@MILS.SPIC.ORG.MK>

Macedonian Information Liaison Service Directory

CONTENTS

MILS NEWS

Skopje, 18 March 1996

[01] SUSANNA AGNELLI IN SKOPJE TODAY

The aspects of the future agreement on Macedonia's associating to the EU are expected to be discussed.

Macedonia will most probably intercede for including the so- called 'evolution clause' in the Agreement. Also, Macedonia is expected to intercede for the avoiding of a global EU strategy for the Balkan countries, which would be a kind of a test of their ability to join the Union. Macedonia will ask for the cooperation level and the associating tempo of each country in the region to the EU to depend exclusively on the standards of each country, without having to wait for the other countries'.

[02] FRCHKOVSKI ACCEPTED PANGALOS'S INVITATION

Macedonian media informed that the meeting should take place till the end of March or at the beginning of April.

[03] IDEA FOR A BALKAN MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE SUPPORTED

On the meeting in Varna a document was signed on the mutual Bulgarian-Romanian interest in starting negotiations with all EU member countries in order to accomplish the status of full EU membership. Greece will support Bulgaria and Romania in their intention.

[04] ANOTHER ANNOUNCEMENT THAT MILOSHEVIC WILL COME TO MACEDONIA

According to the sources in the Macedonian Foreign Ministry cited by A-1 TV and the daily 'Vecer', both parties have agreed the issue of succession of former SFRY 'to be solved peacefully, without using military means'. Apparently, FRY obliged itself to respect the state and legal continuity of Macedonia since 1944 while Macedonia will respect the state and legal continuity of Serbia and Montenegro since the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians, established in 1918.

[05] PANGALOS - 'BELGRADE SHOULD RECOGNISE SKOPJE AFTER THE NAME ISSUE IS SOLVED'

[06] INTENSIVE INTERNATIONAL CONTACTS THIS WEEK

German Minister of Economy Cooperation Carl Dieter Schpranger will pay his second visit to Macedonia tomorrow.

He is expected to meet with the Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov, the Premiere Branko Crvenkovski, the vice Premiere Bekjir Zutta, the Minister of Transport Dimitar Buzlevski and the Development Minister Abdulmenaf Bejetti.

Macedonian Television informed that Madleine Albright, the US representative in UN and a special envoy of the President Bill Clinton, will arrive to Macedonia this week.

Macedonian Foreign Minister Ljubomir Frchkovski will most probably participate in the meeting of the US Secretary of State Warren Christopher with the Foreign Ministers of 12 Eastern and Central European countries in Prague during this week.

[07] BALKAN BURDENED WITH NATIONALISM

Dimitras warned that 'it is difficult to speak about the peace and security, since both Athens and Sofia still deny the existence of the Macedonian minority in their countries'.

Bulgarian representative Dimitrina Petrova informed that the Bulgarian authorities not only forbid the registration of Macedonian organisations and political parties, but they even instruct the police to intervene at religious or other kinds of gathering.

Macedonian representative Meto Jovanovski stressed that there are problems in all countries, but that they are most present in Greece, Bulgaria and Albania.

[08] DEMONSTRATOONS IN FRONT OF THE MACEDONIAN EMBASSY IN SOFIA

[09] ACT AGAINST THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS

The Bulgarian party was warned that there were no legal bases to raise charges in the international institutions.

Facts about the procedures in the above cited cases were presented, as well as their compliance with the international norms and standards.

[10] INFORMATION CENTRE OF THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN INITIATIVE

[11] UNITING OF PDPA AND NDP

This will start with proposing a mutual candidate for the elections in the electoral unit 102 in Skopje. The PDPA Spokesman Alaidin Demiri stated for A-1 Television yesterday that it might be expected for PDPA and NDP to unite as one Party. He, however, denied the information of Radio Tirana, reported by 'Makpress', that these two Parties consider the Albanians in Macedonia as systematically put in the margins of the society, which is why they should become a people with a separate administration, and with specialised segments in the social, economy, political and cultural life.

[12] LIBERALS OFFICIALLY AN OPPOSITION

The Committee also informed on its support of the following suggestions of its parliamentary group: the Parliament to be released; the Government to submit a report on the endangered life, security and private property of the citizens of Macedonia; a Parliament Commission to be formed on the investigation of the assassination attempt on President Gligorov; and the Law on Health Care to be changed.

[13] DPM - 'NEW GOVERNMENT DOES NOT GUARANTEE SUCCESS'

The leader of DPM said there is anarchy and parallel governing in that part of the country. Examples for that are, according to Stojanovski, the 'Albanian university' and the celebrating of the Albanian holidays, the damages made at the properties of Macedonians, the last one being that at the property of Stojan Ristevski from the village of Lavce.

Due to this worrying situation, mostly in the township of Tetovo, DPM will require responsibility from the high officials of the City Assembly of Tetovo.

DPM also expressed its belief that the judges appointed in the Appellate Courts of Skopje, Bitola and Shtip were too close to the governmental circles, which means the legal administration in Macedonia will not be independent.

MILS SUPPLEMENT:

[14] Inflation Falls - Interest Rates Do Not

('Vecer', 18 March 1996)

Therefore, the reduction of the interest rates will be made by the banks themselves. They should decide, till the end of this month, whether they will accept or not the recommendation to set the active interest rates on the basis of the discount rate of 12% plus 10 percentage points. The passive interest rates, paid by the banks for the saving accounts and for the deposits should be formed freely, on the basis of the sources structures.

Most bankers emphasise that the reduction of the interest rates is directly connected with the abolishing of the services tax, coming as a result from the credit relations and from the calculating of the individual tax on the savings interest rates. That is why the competent governmental institutions will have to be included in the procedure. In case the banks are relieved from the payment of these taxes, their expenses will be lowered. A very important factor for low interest rates, as bankers say, will be an immediate passing of new laws, which will speed up the procedure of realising the mortgages and pawns. It will also reduce the risks in crediting the legal and physical subjects, and will influence the price of the capital.

Some bankers say the currently high interest rates are in disagreement with the inflation, discount rate and the stable exchange rate of the denar. Zlatica Popovic from Stopanska Banka - Skopje says the high interest rates are an obstacle to the realisation of the main aim of this year's macroeconomics policy - to increase the production. She thinks the stand of realistic positive interest rates, which will stimulate the savings and support the economy activities, must not be abandoned.

The General Manager of Makedonska Banka Zoran Trpevski stresses the fact that the economy can not handle the high interest rates, which results in unliquidity of banks. His opinion is that the expenses may be reduced by the rationalisation of the work of banks, such as the turnover of the effective currency, which would be organised by several banks.

There are no doubts in the National Bank regarding the interest rates policy of the banks. The vice Governor of the National Bank Tome Nenovski says the inflation and the discount rate are the basic indicators in fixing the interest rates. He finds the current difference between the active and the passive rates is too big, because the inflation in January was 0.3%, in February 0%, while the interest rates were 2.5% to 3% per month. As high rates are a great risk for the Central Bank, a greater attention will be paid to the limits of the increasing of denar investments.

The suggestion of the Banking and Insurance Association for the interest rates to be set monthly, on the basis of the inflation and the discount rate, was adopted on the last meeting of bankers.

Finance Ministry has required for the last year's data of the level of services taxes and of the individual income taxes to be submitted, to have a complete picture of the tax influence to the work of banks. This Ministry has also formed a working group which will take into account the opinions of bankers in the formulation of the new taxes which will be included in the VAT system.

One should wait till the end of March to see whether the bankers will accept the recommendations of the National Bank of Macedonia.

(end)

mils news 18 March 1996