Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 2000-03-14
MACEDONIAN PRESS AGENCY NEWS IN ENGLISH
Thessaloniki, February 14, 2000
SECTIONS
[A] NATIONAL NEWS
[B] INTERNATIONAL NEWS
NEWS HEADLINES
[A] NATIONAL NEWS
[01] GREECE WILL BECOME THE 12TH MEMBER OF THE EMU
[02[ THE PRE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN PERIOD WAS OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED
TODAY
[03] SCHOOL IN CAMEROON NAMED AFTER THESSALONIKI
[04] MEETING UNDER MR. PAPANTONIOU ON THE REFORM OF THE ATHENS
STOCK EXCHANGE
[05] "BLACK TUESDAY" FOR THE ATHENS STOCK EXCHANGE WITH LOSSES OF
6.60%
[06] PAPANDREOU MET WITH THE UN SECRETARY-GENERAL SPECIAL ENVOY TO
CYPRUS
[B] INTERNATIONAL NEWS
[07] ATTACKS AGAINST THE GREEK PRESS OFFICE IN SKOPJE
[08] ALBANIA IS THE COUNTRY WITH THE MOST IMMIGRANTS ABROAD
NEWS IN DETAIL
[A] NATIONAL NEWS
[01] GREECE WILL BECOME THE 12TH MEMBER OF THE EMU
Greece will become the 12th member of the EMU in the Porto EU
summit meting that will take place on June 19-20 stated yesterday
Portugal's representative in the finance ministers council
meeting, stressing that the ECOFIN members are impressed with the
big progress achieved by the Greek economy in a very short period
of time.
Greek minister of national economy and finance Yiannos
Papantoniou stated that by June 5 many meetings will be held in
which Greece will explain the kind and the extend of the
structural changes it intends to adopt in the sector of economy.
[02[ THE PRE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN PERIOD WAS OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED
TODAY
Prime minister Kostas Simitis, who visited president Kostis
Stephanopoulos after the last cabinet meeting today, stated that
this is a very important day. He said that today signals the end
of a very fertile historic circle, characterized by Greece's
application for EMU membership and the Helsinki EU summit meeting.
Mr. Simitis also referred to the positive comments made by
the Portuguese EU presidency in the ECOFIN meeting concerning
Greece's application to join the EMU.
Meanwhile, president of the republic Kostis Stephanopoulos
signed today the presidential decree for the dissolution of the
Greek parliament officially opening the pre-election campaign
period.
[03] SCHOOL IN CAMEROON NAMED AFTER THESSALONIKI
The children of Cameroon intend to give the name
"Thessaloniki" to the new school building they will soon have with
the economic assistance of the people of the northern Greek city.
Charity organization "The friends of Africa" president
Antonis Mouzela will leave for Cameroon on Thursday to meet with
the regional chief in the city of Camba to discuss the issue of
the construction of the new school building.
Mr. Mouzela's trip to Cameroon will take place with the
support of undersecretary of finance Christos Pachtas.
[04] MEETING UNDER MR. PAPANTONIOU ON THE REFORM OF THE ATHENS
STOCK EXCHANGE
Measures for the reform of the Athens Stock Exchange were
discussed at noon today in the meeting of minister of national
economy Yiannos Papantoniou with the governors of the National
Bank of Greece Theodoros Karatzas, Agriculture Bank Mr. Lambrou
and Commercial Bank Mr. Georgousakos as well as, with Athens Stock
Exchange president Spiros Kouniakis and Capital Market Committee
president Mr. Thomadakis.
In statements he made afterwards, Mr. Papantoniou referred to
the developments in the Athens Stock Exchange and pointed out that
if the stock market is involved into politics the consequences can
only be negative. He also called on small investors not to be
affected by political rumors on the Athens Stock Exchange and
stated that the negative picture in the stock market is
unjustified given the fact that the course of the economy is
positive.
[05] "BLACK TUESDAY" FOR THE ATHENS STOCK EXCHANGE WITH LOSSES OF
6.60%
Investors in the Athens Stock Exchange had a "Black Tuesday"
today as the general index dived to 6.60% losing over 320.90
points compared to last Friday's session.
In spite of the especially positive news from the "front" of
the economy, the general index at some point recorded losses of up
to 7.29% today, dropping to 4.509 points. However, in the last
minutes of the session it regained part of its losses and closed
at 4.542,65 points with the volume of transactions limited to 165
billion drachmas.
Today's mini-crash was a surprise for all as the Athens Stock
Exchange was expected to react positively to the upgrading of
Greece's loan taking ability from the international house of
economic evaluations FITCH IBCA, while a boost was expected to be
given by the SALOMON SMITH BARNEY report on the attractiveness of
the Greek stocks.
Stock market circles in an attempt to interpret the
unreasonable behavior of the Greek stock market attribute the
phenomenon to the fact that investors are rushing to sell their
stocks regardless of sector, while a farfetched scenario even
speaks about investors who sell just to get out of the stock
market.
Meanwhile, the special internal investigation continues in
the Athens Stock Exchange aimed at clarifying the causes that led
to the unexplained losses recorded last Thursday during the speech
of the prime minister announcing that Greece has submitted its
application to join the EMU.
[06] PAPANDREOU MET WITH THE UN SECRETARY-GENERAL SPECIAL ENVOY TO
CYPRUS
The developments in the Cyprus issue, the Greek-Turkish
relations and Turkey's EU accession course were discussed today in
the meeting of Greek foreign minister Giorgos Papandreou with UN
secretary-general special envoy to Cyprus Mr. De Soto.
In statements he made after the meeting, Mr. Papandreou
pointed out that Turkey's European course gives a new momentum to
the overall framework of the solution of the Cyprus issue.
From his side, Mr. De Soto pointed out that for the moment
the appropriate preconditions for the opening of direct
negotiations on Cyprus are absent, adding that the proximity talks
can bring results and prepare the ground for the solution of the
problem.
[B] INTERNATIONAL NEWS
[07] ATTACKS AGAINST THE GREEK PRESS OFFICE IN SKOPJE
The Greek Press Office in Skopje, FYROM has repeatedly become
the target of extremist attacks lately, with the most recent one
occurring last Friday evening when unidentified individuals
climbed to the building's first floor, removed the Greek flag and
destroyed its mast.
Last December, extremists had climbed again to the Greek
Press Office balcony where they removed and burned the Greek flag
on the spot, while just recently other individuals, who are yet to
be identified, threw beer bottles against the building's glass
door smashing it.
Questions are raised over the fact that even though the
building, where the Greek Press Office is housed, is guarded by
police, the perpetrators of all three attacks were able to act
without being noticed and were not arrested.
A systematic effort to create an anti-Greek climate in the
country is being made in recent months by certain circles, which
are annoyed by the impressive improvement of the relations between
Greece and FYROM.
[08] ALBANIA IS THE COUNTRY WITH THE MOST IMMIGRANTS ABROAD
Albania is the European country with the most immigrants
abroad, according to a research conducted by the Economic and
Social Studies Center in Tirana.
According to the data gathered by the center, a total of 800-
900 thousand Albanians have immigrated abroad in search of a
better life and most of them live in Greece, adding that 40% of
the immigrants are intellectuals.
It is worth to note that the emigration of Albanians is on
the rise and according to official data, in 1999 increased by 4.2%
compared to 1998.
It is estimated that 400-550 thousand Albanian immigrants are
in Greece, 150-300 thousand in Italy, 15.000 in Germany, 3.000 in
Belgium, 3.500 in France, 3.000 in Turkey, while several thousand
are estimated to have immigrated to Canada, Switzerland and the
United States.
According to the available data, 67% of the immigrants are
men and children and 33% are women, while 50% of them are under
the age of 40.
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