SKOPJE, SEPTEMBER 1, 1995 (MIC)
At the special session of the Interparliamentary Council, which is taking place in New York, on the occasion of 50-years from the foundation of the United Nations, a delegation of the Parliament of the RM, led by Speaker of Parliament Stojan Andov is also participating. Yesterday, he addressed the meeting with a speech on the topic "Democratization, peace and permanent development", emphasizing that the Republic of Macedonia, strictly and properly observing the elevated intentions and principles, consisted in the Charter of the United Nations, showed that at the door-steps of the 21st century it is possible, without any wars and victims, to realize the right of a national state.
This was, certainly, influenced by the firm determination and orientation for solving the problems without military means, through dialog and negotiations, developing of the friendly relations with the neighbors, mutually useful for the neighbors and the countries in the region, joining the worldly integration processes through its own accustoming and transformation into a modern democratic state, in which the law, market economy, respecting of the human rights and the rights of the minorities rule in accordance with the highest standards. In the realization of these determinations, of significance was the role of the Macedonian parliament members too - added Andov.
He pointed out that the insisting of Greece to keep Republic of Macedonia under blockade and away from some of the regional organizations and security systems, is not only harmful for the Republic of Macedonia, but much more than that: Greek behavior could destabilize the region, while the tolerance of this kind of behavior is pitiful and according to the consequences harmful accepting of some kind of usurped right of a more powerful country to use force and threats towards a weaker country.
Despite everything, Republic of Macedonia is an initiator of the cooperation with the neighbors and all of the other Balkan states, and shows that with a complete accepting and comparing of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations - concluded Andov.
At yesterday's session of the parliament of the county of Debar, among the other, discussed was the draft law for local self-management too, and they estimated that it is not acceptable, discriminatory and worthless. At the session at which the board members of the Liberal Party and the Social-democratic League didn't take part, was stated that the proposed text of the law insists on being centralizing, i.e. prevents the transmitting of the jurisdictions to the local authorities. At the session special remarks were pointed out regarding the use of the languages of the minorities, during which it is being emphasized that, instead of 20% of the number of the population, the mentioned per cent should be 5% in order for the language of the minority to be used.
Yesterday, the assembly of the Negotino municipality held its 31st session, at which the members were informed in detail about the consequences and material damages caused by the storm on July 6. According to the report drawn up by the municipal commission for the estimation and determination of losses caused by natural disasters, the overall losses at the level of the whole municipality amount to 1,211,331,000 denars, compared to the GDP of the municipality - 847,434,000 denars, which shows that the losses exceed the GDP by 143%.
At yesterday's session, the members of the local assembly adopted draft-measures for elimination of the consequences from the natural disaster. It was decided for the Negotino assembly to start an initiative through the Macedonian Government for the adoption of a Law for the elimination of consequences.
Macedonian and Greek fishermen met at the border line on the Dojran Lake these days.
The fishermen of the two countries concluded that the lake is being irretrievably destroyed and what is left of it doesn't guarantee the livelihood to the people who fish for a living.
The Greek border authorities didn't prevent the meeting, on the contrary to the previous initiatives for meetings, which were unsuccessful.
It is arranged for anything to be mutually done in order to save the lake, while also, arranged is a new meeting beside the lake's floaters which mark the border line between the two countries.
After the ecological disaster, which happened to the Dojran Lake with its emptying, the farmers use the lake's dried out bottom as a fertile ground and plant agricultural products on it.
The Shtip local assembly held a special session today that focused on the damages from the hail storm that hit this municipality on August 25, when four persons were struck by lightning and lost their lives, and a large number of individual and collective apartment buildings, private and state-owned companies, public and community objects, educational institutions and farming areas were inflicted enormous damages.
At the session, the commander of the regional staff for civil protection Tome Binovski submitted a report on the global scope of the damages caused by the hail storm and the efficient measures which were taken in cooperation with public companies in the town and the regional units of all the ministries, for speedier normalization of life in the municipality.
Because of the large scope of the damages caused by the storm, today, the Shtip assembly accepted the initiative of the president of the local assembly Trajko Spasov, to proclaim the storm from August 25 a natural disaster.
In accordance with the Law on protection from natural disasters, after the adoption of this decision, the Shtip assembly will ask the Republic to help eliminate the consequences from the storm with financial or other means.
League of the Serbs in Macedonia, these days, through the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Macedonia, sent a letter to the President of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltzin. In the letter, among the other, it is said:
"The League of the Serbs in Macedonia assesses that the latest attacks by NATO planes and the so-called quick intervention forces of EU on the Bosnian Serbs, are in a good part a result of the politics of constant yielding of the Russian Federation before the politics of genocide of the USA and the Federal Republic of Germany".
"Honored Mr. President, the League of the Serbs in Macedonia, asks You to reconsider the politics of yielding and for Russia to finally take the place in the international community that legally belongs to it", it is said at the end of the letter directed to the President of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltzin.
Yesterday, a.d. "Makedonija Tabak" received an official information from the Privatization Agency that the International sales auction for 51% of the capital of this enterprise, together with the managing package in the three tobacco plants, opened on the 16th of January and closed on the 17th of March, this year, was unsuccessful. There was no acceptable offer received for this enterprise.
This is first information about the unique international auction in the previous progress of the privatization in Macedonia, after the silence lasting exactly five months. As it is known, about the Macedonian "yellow gold" interested were several world magnates for production of cigarettes, but during the negotiations with them, they expressed discontent with the high degree of previous privatization of the enterprises, over-employment, not settled internal conditions for making business... Unofficially, we found out that the negotiations ended unsuccessfully for Prilep and Skopje tobacco plants too, and it is still not certain till the end what will happen to the one in Kumanovo. However, even though the Agency keeps silent for now, the auction will obviously be proclaimed as unsuccessful.
The managing board of PTT "Makedonija" made a decision at its session held these days, confirming the choice of manufacturer of the equipment "Iskra tel" from Slovenia, in cooperation with "Siemens" from Germany, to provide the equipment, assembly and to open up new digital telephone exchanges, which will provide 100,000 new telephone connections in the country.
The deal with this firm will be signed during the first half of next month, which also starts off the realization of the Project of digital telephone exchanges which will finance the PTT with its own funds. This was said at yesterday's news conference held at the PTT "Makedonija," at which the details surrounding this new project for modernizing the country's telephone network were disclosed, as well as the company's activities in the first semester of this year.
The acting general director of PTT "Makedonija" Risto Kostovski stressed that the new connections from this project will provide telephone lines for the municipalities Tetovo, Kumanovo, Kriva Palanka, Kratovo, Stip, Sveti Nikole, Probistip, Kocani, Berovo, Delcevo, Vinica and Kavadarci. The whole project will cost US$ 11 million, and what is especially important, much lower prices than those which the firm offered before have been reached.
With this project, and the one being realized from the EBRD credit (for which a choice of suppliers of the necessary equipment has already been made) in a year to a year and a half (short equipment delivery terms have been arranged) our country will receive some 350,000 new telephone connections. Of them, some 100,000 will be used to replace a part of the analogous telephone capacities (with which there are many problems now), while the rest will be intended for the needs of the new subscribers. This, as the president of the PTT managing board Aco Popovski stressed, will increase the number of telephones to 32 phones to 100 inhabitants, which will bring us closer to the developed countries.
The board of the German car manufacturer "Audi" gave a positive assessment at its last meeting, held on August 28, of the pre-feasibility study for the complete production of the latest model "Audi 3" in Macedonia. The final decision to approve this project should be made on October 9 at the meeting of the board of the "Folkswagen" group. In the meantime, as Pece Damevski, president of "Asiba MG" said at yesterday's news conference, the feasibility study has to be prepared which will define, more precisely, some questions that remained open in the pre-study.
Namely, as Damevski stressed, in the coming period the participation of "Audi," "Asiba MG" and the state in the project "A3" has to be determined, the price of the new car, the capacity, i.e. the scope of production, as well as the manner of manufacture - whether some existing capacities will be re-adapted or new production halls will be built. At the moment, the re- adaptation of two plants of the Metalworks Tito in Skopje is a possible alternative, while the price of "Audi 3" on the domestic market would range between 22 and 24,000 DEM, which is 12 to 15,000 DEM cheaper than if it was produced in Germany.
As to the participation of the state, it will consist of the use of the infrastructure of renting out land for construction, with concession. According to Pece Damevski, the state would receive stocks up to 10 and 15% of the overall value, which is common practice in the other countries, when it comes to foreign investments of this type.
The pilot-program for the production of "A3" in Macedonia, as Damevski mentioned, should not be comprehended only as a project of "Asiba MG," but should also present a project of our state.
The private company "Vi-za" presented the latest model of the mini-bus "Furio" in hotel "Continental" in Skopje yesterday. This is the first model of this type in our country. It can hold 23 passengers and is adapted to transportation on short lines, which means it is practical for transportation for weekends, short trips, outings, airport and hotel services, etc.
At the ceremony, the director of "Vi-za" Nikola Zafirovski said that around 20 such vehicles will be produced annually, and that the mini-bus would be offered on the Macedonian as well as the European market.
According to the data of the Macedonian Agency for transformation of companies with state-owned capital, the to-date process of privatization has brought in some 30 million DEM.
These funds, collected from the to-date privatization (started according to the old federal laws, as well as the new current law) came from the payment of contributions, as well as the payment of internal shares in the companies which are privatized. It the process, some 400 million denars in cash were collected, as well as some 410 million denars from foreign currencies trapped in banks. According to the realizations of the financial sector of the Privatization Agency, a low influx of cash money has been recorded in the last three months, as the companies that are in a phase of transformation are paying their obligations (contributions), in the most part, with trapped foreign currencies.
However, as Evgeni Zografski - financial director at the agency says, a bigger influx of funds from the privatization is expected in the first quarter of next year, when the first payments will arrive, that is, the first installments from the deals signed between the companies and the Agency.
Otherwise, the number of newly privatized companies in the state is on the increase, whereby 230 privatizations are now regarded as complete, of which 200 are privatizations signed through the deal with the Agency. The Agency has also received 564 subjects for privatization, that is decisions from companies that have started the transformation process. Of them, 40 to 50 companies have submitted requests to extend the deadline that binds them to start the ownership restructure.
As for the small and middle-sized companies whose deadline for autonomous privatization (of which there was around 100) have passed a couple of months already, the Agency placed a public call to them, to ascertain how their preparations are going. After inspecting the data and after initial contacts with the firms, the Agency says there are 60 companies that have not responded to the public call. Of them, eight are middle-sized companies while the rest are small. During September, all of these will have the value of their companies evaluated by the Agency, and after the evaluation, it will start their privatization, that is, the Agency will offer them for sale itself.