Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 00-11-10

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From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cyprus-mail.com/>

Friday, November 10, 2000

CONTENTS

[01] New measures to slow drivers

[02] Two more killed on the road

[03] House approves wad of EU vegetable rules

[04] Market scrapes 'rock bottom'

[05] 'Jobs safe' despite Daewoo bankruptcy

[06] Not bad, but could do better…

[07] Suspect cold cures named

[08] Anthem row proves we are two states, say Turkish Cypriots

[09] Patriarch will not be represented at Greater Synod

[10] Synod may be postponed

[11] 'We're not demanding mobile phones and secretaries,' says MP

[01] New measures to slow drivers

According to police statistics, around 11 per cent of road accidents can be blamed on drivers' failure to keep a sufficient distance from the vehicle ahead. The measure has chevrons painted on the slow lane of the highway, aimed at guiding drivers on the minimum distance they should keep.

The chevrons are drawn 40 metres apart from each other and drivers should keep a distance of at least two chevrons between them and the leading vehicle. There are panels on the hard shoulder guiding drivers to use the chevrons correctly.

Transport Ministry Official Alecos Michaelides told a news conference yesterday that the measure was initially being implemented on a three- kilometre stretch of road on the Nicosia to Larnaca road, between Ayia Varvara and Lymbia.

Drivers should set their minimum distance according to the chevrons and maintain it throughout their journey, Michaelides said. He said the safety distance between vehicles driving at 100 km an hour - the island's maximum speed limit - was 55-60 metres.

The chevrons are 40 metres apart, so if drivers can see two of them between them and the next vehicle, they should have enough time to stop in an emergency, Michaelides said. The chevron system has been successfully tried in several European countries, he said, adding the ministry would assess its results in the coming months, and, if positive, would extend the system to the rest of the island's motorway network.

Traffic Police Chief George Voutounos echoed Michaelides, adding the measure had shown excellent results in stemming this particular cause of accidents, which is frequent worldwide.

"Last year in Cyprus there were 455 accidents blamed on not keeping a safe distance, in a total of 4,203 accidents," Voutounos said. He added: "We believe chevrons will help drivers get into the habit of keeping safe distances."

"Police support the measure and we think it should be extended to the rest of the motorway network," he said. For the time being, police will not book drivers who do not observe the guidelines, since it is not incorporated in the traffic code.

Abroad, however, it is a serious violation, Voutounos said. "Cypriot drivers will have the time to learn the new system, which in the future could become part of the traffic code," said Voutounos. "We strongly believe it is an important upgrade of road safety on the island," he added.

Voutounos yesterday confirmed reports that police were pushing for cameras to be installed on roads too. He said cameras would help police monitor traffic on a 24-hour basis, and give officers a chance to patrol the secondary road network. "We have prepared the report and we are moving as fast as possible to acquire and install the traffic cameras," Voutounos said. He could not, however, give a time frame for the implementation of the cameras system.

[02] Two more killed on the road

A 21-YEAR-old special constable was killed in a head-on collision on the Vrysoulles to Larnaca road at 7.30 am yesterday.

The road death was the second in the space of just over 24 hours, a 48-year- old Georgian woman having been run over and killed as she tried to cross a road in Kato Paphos at 7 pm on Wednesday night.

Yesterday's accident occurred as Kyriacos Kyriacou was driving to his post at Larnaca airport from his home in Vrysoulles, in the Dhekelia base area. According to police, Kyriacou appears to have lost control of his car on a tight bend near the village and veered onto the wrong side of the road, crashing into an oncoming lorry.

Kyriacou was killed instantly as his car was flung off the road by the force of the smash. It took British bases firemen two hours to cut his body out of the wreckage. The driver of the lorry and his passenger escaped unhurt.

On Wednesday evening, 48-year-old Midia Georgiadou was killed while trying to cross Ikarou Street in Kato Paphos. Police said the victim was hit by an oncoming car and flung into the path of another vehicle, which also hit her.

Georgiadou was rushed to Paphos hospital, but was declared dead on arrival there. Both fatal accidents are being investigated by police. Cyprus has one of the highest road death rates in Europe, with over 100 people being killed on the road in an average year.

[03] House approves wad of EU vegetable rules

FARMERS growing fruit and vegetables for export will as of today be forced to keep a closer watch on the size, shape and overall quality of their produce.

The House plenum yesterday evening unanimously and summarily approved 32 sets of regulations imposing EU quality standards on everything from avocadoes and cucumbers to spinach and strawberries.

Press reports have suggested the EU regulations on farm produce make ridiculous demands on growers, such as that all cucumbers be straight. EU officials deny this, saying the rules are instead about categorising produce and ensuring freshness and fitness for human consumption.

During a brief debate yesterday, opposition deputies, with AKEL's Christos Mavrokordatos to the fore, expressed fears that the regulations would force local growers to spend large sums on getting their produce up to EU standards.

But Androulla Vassiliou, of junior government partners the United Democrats, insisted that local produce covered by the 32 regulations already met EU standards and local farmers would therefore not be caught out. Vassiliou's position was supported by the House EU affairs committee, which examined the regulations and recommended their approval.

Deputies from all sides of the House agreed yesterday that the government should foot the bill should farmers incur great costs in meeting the EU harmonisation requirements. "All other accession countries get harmonisation funds from the EU for these things, we do not get any and so the state must pay, not the farmers," Mavrokordatos told the plenum.

Before the start of yesterday's brief plenum session, deputies observed a two-minute silence in memory of the dead of both World Wars.

[04] Market scrapes 'rock bottom'

Volume hit its lowest point in months, standing at only £11.95 million. Despite BoC's successful debut on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) on Wednesday, investors are still unsure if the tide will turn.

Yesterday BoC shed nine cents from its CSE price to end at £5.24 while in Greece the stock again proved a popular choice with Greek investors. BoC shares on the ASE closed at 3,140 drachmas (£5.25), 30 drachmas up on the previous day after hitting an intraday high of 3,155 drachmas. Almost 200, 000 BoC shares changed hands in Greece.

In Cyprus over 260,000 were traded on a volume of £1.37 million, making it the most actively traded of the day. The fact the ASE closes some two hours after the CSE heightened the uncertainty yesterday for Cypriot investors unable to tell how the share would end the day in Athens.

"Investors here are looking for signs from Greece. A lot of them don't know yet what to make of it all," said one Nicosia broker yesterday. "I think we are seeing that the price is not as close as we would like it to be." But BoC cannot take the entire blame for dragging the market down yesterday.

Star player GlobalSoft kept a low profile suffering a rare lack of investor interest. The stock lost nine cents to close at £5.88 on a volume of only 72,000 shares worth less than half a million pounds. "There was a distinct lack of investor interest in GlobalSoft today," the broker said. "Looking at the order book, the usual large orders on the share were absent."

Most sectors suffered losses yesterday particularly the trading, IT and banking sectors, down 2.01 per cent, 1.74 per cent and 1.43 per cent respectively. Laiki went the same road as BoC, shedding six cents to end at £6.87 and Hellenic lost two cents to close at £1.45.

Popular shares yesterday included Tsokkos, which again traded on huge volumes with almost a million changing hands, adding two cents to take it to a 41-cent finish. Brokers predict further losses before the index settles although one said yesterday he believed the market had hit rock bottom and was in the process of consolidating.

Another said the continuing liquidity squeeze would get worse particularly with Christmas coming when investors would be hanging on to their hard- earned cash. "There are a lot of things dragging the market down," he said. "People are not selling and there is no money to buy."

A CSE web analysis said yesterday the liquidity squeeze was not going to go away and was only going to get worse when the 150 new companies waiting to be listed eventually float. "There are more than 100 listed companies presently in the CSE. If we add the warrants and rights issues we are close to 200.

There are about 150 companies waiting to enlist, not counting their warrants or rights issue. If the authorities believe that there is lack of liquidity at this point, when the listed companies reach the 250 level, that is when it will definitely get interesting," the analysis said. "An economy the size of the Bronx will never be able to sustain such a large number of companies with such large issues.

We are talking here about companies that have less yearly turnover than an old antique store in San Francisco's Chinatown."

[05] 'Jobs safe' despite Daewoo bankruptcy

Daewoo representatives in Korea said operations at the Bupyong plant had had to cease because subcontractors refused to supply steel plates and other vital elements. However, Charalambos Charalambous, the General Manager of Reliable Motors in Nicosia, remains confident about Daewoo's future prospects.

"Last year, we sold 250 cars, this year we've sold 450 and have another 60 orders pending, which represents a 100 per cent increase in sales. I am very confident a deal can be reached with General Motors and partners Fiat - - and no, I don't envisage any redundancies," he told the Cyprus Mail.

Reliable Motors, which also has three other retail outlets in Limassol, Larnaca and Paralimni, is a relatively young company, having been in existence for just two years. The news that their supplier is more than $10 billion in debt has come as a shock to its managers.

"I was very surprised when I heard the news," Charalambous confessed. "This is a company with thousands of employees and I'm shocked by the situation. But I am not worrying about the future because I believe Daewoo will continue." There does, however, seem to be a serious lack of communication between top management and distributors.

"The only news I have received is through the mainstream news," John Osmond, the Duty Free Salesman at the Larnaca showroom, told the Mail. "We have no idea what's happening, probably the only people who do know are the managing director and those he is negotiating with." Osmond insisted though that as yet nothing had changed here in Cyprus and that they were still continuing to trade.

He said he was refusing to worry about the security of his job and that he would await further information from the troubled supplier. There are, however, concerns that, if Deawoo does go under, owners of the cars may not be able to find a supplier to replace worn or broken parts. Reliable Motors said they did not want to comment on the issue, but emphasised the point that they believed the company would recover.

The Korean car giant assured its customers and UK workers yesterday that it was "business as usual", and that it had entered into a restructuring programme, which was not receivership as it is known in other countries.

"Daewoo customers can be confident their warranties and service packages will be honoured," the company said in a statement. "Daewoo Cars is a self- sufficient subsidiary which does not rely on funds from Korea. For both the sales network and the Worthing Technical Centre it's business as usual."

Now that the firms massive debts have been frozen, it has time to rethink its next move. The statement added that, by restructuring the company, they were removing obstacles in negotiations with GM and that measures were now being put in place, which would make Daewoo an even more attractive buy. However, no further details are expected from GM for at least one month.

[06] Not bad, but could do better…

Social Policy and Employment

Cyprus has made good progress in the field of education and training. However, further effort in strategic policymaking is needed. As regards the education of children of migrant workers, existing legislation is already in line with the acquis and there are already provisions in public schools for facilitating such children and a number of teachers have been trained to help their integration into the school system.

Environment

Cyprus has undertaken considerable efforts to align its legislation and to reinforce its administration in these areas but effort is needed in the area of border control. Equipment for the detection of forged documents or the establishment of the Schengen Information System will have to be installed and the architectural plans for the new Larnaca Airport will have to be upgraded to comply with this system. Cyprus is a target country for illegal immigration and the legislation in this area needs to be strengthened, as do the laws on expulsion. Cyprus must also strengthen its legislation on marriages of convenience. Organised crime is relatively rare in Cyprus and the overall crime rate is one of the lowest in Europe. Cypriot legislation does not contain a definition of a criminal organisation. Telecommunications and Information Technology

Infrastructure and services are well advanced in Cyprus, but considerable effort must be made to adopt a regulatory framework in line with the acquis, in particular in the field of gradual market opening and licensing. The establishment of an independent regulatory authority has not been met and a new law on telecommunications to align with the acquis needs to be adopted to put the regulatory framework in place. Energy

There has been limited progress towards the adoption of the acquis and further effort is needed. Additional storage capacity is needed to comply with the 90-days stock requirement. No concrete developments have taken place with regard to this issue since last year. Similarly there has been no progress with regard to aspects of competitiveness and the internal energy market. Under present rules, only when the Electricity Authority lacks capacity can permission to generate electricity be granted to others. This monopoly position will need to be altered in order to comply with the acquis. Transport

Cyprus has advanced well in its harmonisation of the basic legislative harmonisation, but in relation to land transport the island still needs to align on recording equipment (tachographs), minimum levels of driver training and licences. On air transport, in view of full liberalisation, Cyprus needs to make substantial progress in the field of aviation safety in terms of licensing and safety oversight procedures. Cyprus also needs to improve its performance on port state control in maritime transport. Care should be taken that there are sufficient inspectors to apply the acquis. The government also needs to monitor the performance of the ship classification societies acting on behalf of Cyprus. Further strengthening of the Merchant Shipping Department is also needed and also further harmonisation on ship safety issues. Agriculture

Although there has been some progress in preparing Cyprus' agriculture for the Common Agricultural Policy, substantial work still needs to be done. Cyprus need to establish a Paying Agency to handle common agricultural expenditure and has not yet signed international agreements on designation of origin and geographical indications. There is no legal framework in Cyprus for the recognition of Producer Organisations according to EU criteria and the monopolies of the Cyprus Grain Commission, the Cyprus Olive Products Marketing Board and the Cyprus Milk Industry Organisation along with the statute of the Cyprus Vine Products Commission will have to be brought in line with the acquis. In the veterinary sector, contingency plans for foot and mouth disease and classical swine fever should be developed. Cyprus will also have to establish an on-the-spot laboratory for the examination of imported produce at border posts and computerisation is a must for the movement of animals and produce on the internal market.

[08] Anthem row proves we are two states, say Turkish Cypriots

The reaction from the north to last week's furore over a Cypriot national anthem said EU negotiator and former President George Vassiliou's proposal for an anthem in the event of a solution was a "deception", and that the furious Greek Cypriot reaction to the idea was just another sign that the sides should remain apart.

A storm of protest hit Vassiliou last week over his comment in response to a question that Cyprus should have its own state national anthem if a federal solution was reached.

The Green Party called on the government to replace him, while other circles spoke of his betrayal of Hellenism and his 'dangerous' positions. Deputies and members of the general public expressed outrage on radio shows, lambasting Vassiliou for even suggesting that the Greek national anthem, used in Cyprus since 1966, should be replaced by a Cypriot one.

According to reports in yesterday's Turkish Cypriot press, the Turkish Cypriot 'Foreign and Defence Ministry' issued a written statement in response to Vassiliou's comment and the resulting reactions.

"It is evident that the aim of the proposal is to reinforce the deception that a Cypriot nation exists on the island and in this way, assist the Greek Cypriot side in their goal for a unitary state structure," the statement said.

It added that from the response it was obvious Greek Cypriots considered it an impossibility to give up the Greek national anthem. "It became obvious that it is most important that the Turkish Cypriot people not stop taking precautions against the final goal of the Greek Cypriots," the statement continued.

"The Greek Cypriot side's reaction to Vassiliou's proposal proves once again the reality that there are two separate and sovereign states and peoples in Cyprus." The reaction also showed to what extent the Turkish Cypriot people were justified in protecting their 'state', it added.

"The Turkish Cypriot people who are proud to be part of the great Turkish nation, will continue to carry the Turkish national anthem in their heart as their most supreme value."

[09] Patriarch will not be represented at Greater Synod

ARCHBISHOP Chrysostomos yesterday confirmed he had received a letter from the Patriarch of Constantinople informing him that no one would represent the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the Greater Synod scheduled for next Tuesday.

The Archbishop called the Greater Synod after accusations that two out of the three members of a committee appointed to investigate homosexual allegations against Limassol Bishop Athanassios were biased against him.

Several bishops have voiced strong objections to the Archbishop's decision to call the Greater Synod - which will include representatives from the wider Orthodox world. To counter allegations of procedural irregularity in calling the Greater Synod, the Archbishop is now putting pressure on the investigating committee to submit its findings today, so he can call a meeting of the local Holy Synod before Tuesday's Greater Synod.

Reports, however, suggested both synods could be postponed if the findings were not ready in time. Other reports said several members of the Holy Synod wished to put a lid on the issue to avoid the meeting of the Greater Synod, possibly by seeking lesser charges against Athanassios.

But the Limassol Bishop has repeatedly stated that he was innocent and would not accept any verdict short of total vindication. Athanassios has refused to testify before the committee, charging that two of its members, Trimithoundos Bishop Vassilios, and Morphou Bishop Neophytos, were conspiring against him.

Supporters of the Limassol Bishop have accused Paphos Bishop Chrysostomos of masterminding a plot to destroy him amid suggestions Athanassios may have replaced Chrysostomos in the race to succeed the Archbishop.

[10] Synod may be postponed

Two factors seemed to be pushing towards a postponement of the Major Synod, which the Church head has called for Tuesday. First, the Archbishop confirmed that he had received a letter from the Patriarch of Constantinople informing him that no one would be representing the Ecumenical Patriarchate at Tuesday's Major Synod.

And second, the three-Bishop inquiry into the claims against Athanasios informed Chrysostomos there was no way they could meet his demand that their findings be ready by Tuesday.

There was no comment on a possible postponement from the Archbishop himself yesterday, but speculation that Chrysostomos would have to hold fire was rife. Several Bishop's have openly objected to the Archbishop calling a Major Synod, saying their superior was going above the local Holy Synod's head.

Chrysostomos, who has always backed Athanassios, called the Major Synod - which would include leaders from the wider orthodox Church - after claiming that two of the three Bishops on the inquiry panel were biased against their Limassol colleague.

Athanassios has this week twice snubbed the inquiry's summons for him to appear before it and answer to the charges against him. The Limassol Bishop has challenged the legitimacy of the evidence against him, pointing to the fact that the five of the six people who testified to his alleged homosexual activities before an earlier Church probe have since been charged by police with conspiring to defame him.

Supporters of the Limassol Bishop have accused Bishop Chrysostomos of Paphos of masterminding a plot to destroy Athanassios because he has replaced the Paphos cleric as favourite to be next Archbishop.

[11] 'We're not demanding mobile phones and secretaries,' says MP

The deputy, who asked not be named, told the Cyprus Mail that deputies were not after a higher salary either. "What we did say was that we needed scientific advisors.

Everything else was just mentioned in the context that deputies in many countries overseas enjoy those privileges." He added: "Someone mentioned higher pay but that was all." Recent reports have suggested that deputies wanted drivers and secretaries drawn from the public sector, and that they should deputies should automatically receive free mobile phones and have part of their phone bills subsidised.

Some deputies allegedly wanted special licence plates on their cars identifying them as members of parliament.

Cyprus Mail 2000

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