MAK-NEWS 16/02/96 (M.I.C.)

From: "M.I.C." <[email protected]>

Macedonian Information Centre Directory

CONTENTS

SKOPJE, FEBRUARY 16, 1996 (MIC)

[01] FRY ANNOUNCES NORMALIZATION OF RELATIONS WITH RM

The Yugoslav Prime Minister Radoe Kontich has repeated, for the second time in a week, that it will come to a full normalization of relations with Macedonia very soon.

"First, it will come to a normalization of the relations with Macedonia, with which we have the least problems," Kontich said during his meeting on Wednesday with representatives of church and religious communities in Yugoslavia.

The wife of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevich, Mira Markovich avoided answering under with name the FRY will recognize Macedonia, in her interview for the Greek newspaper "Elefterostipos."

"That is not a big issue," Mira Markovich said. She added that the nations of Greece, Macedonia and Serbia should deal with economic and cultural cooperation in order to get into Europe, and not waste time with questions of lesser importance.

[02] MACEDONIA AT OECD

The Council of the Organization on Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) will discuss Macedonia's application for admission to this organization at its session on the 22nd of this month. The Council is expected to make a positive decision and to formalize Macedonia's cooperation with the OECD and the Center for Cooperation with Economies in Transition.

[03] PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN OF MACEDONIAN STOCK EXCHANGE

The Macedonian stock exchange will launch a promotional campaign on Monday, to inform the general public about its organization and manner of work. The campaign will consist of organizing seminars in Ohrid, Bitola, Strumica, Prilep, Stip and Kumanovo, Titov Veles and Skopje. Interested citizens and company representatives can attend these seminars free of charge.

[04] ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY OF MACEDONIA

The Muslim Religious Community of the Republic of Macedonia is a new religious community of the Islamic believers in the country. It is a legally registered community, consisting of Muslim believers of all nationalities, as a non-party, multi- national religious community, which will focus exclusively on the religious life of its members. Yakup Selimovski, president of the Assembly of the Muslim Religious Community of the Republic of Macedonia informed the public about this yesterday.

The reasons for this lie in the denial of the legitimacy of the present Islamic Community of the Republic of Macedonia, following the break up of the former Yugoslav Islamic Community.

"The break up of the country was supposed to dissolve that community and to create an Islamic Community of RM, however, the current leadership, afraid for its position, since in such a situation, all the religious subjects of the Muslims of RM would make decisions, brought a decision in front of the administrative organ of the Islamic Community, to separate and self-proclaim the leadership of the Islamic Community in RM. That community remained registered as in the past, as part of the Yugoslav Community, with an application from 1977," Selimovski emphasized. He added that the community no longer had legitimacy, and that, in effect, the formation of the Muslim Religious Community fulfills the wishes of the believers for an independent religious community. Selimovski also sad that a part of the committees of the Islamic Community have already left it, due to disagreement with the new constitution, and the influence of political parties, which have turned it into an instrument of daily interest. "The Muslim Religious Community strives to bring all Muslim believers together in a very short period of time, and is willing to hold dialogue with all those who are prepared to enable a comprehensive religious organization."

[05] MACEDONIA MAKES COORDINATED APPEARANCE ABROAD

The Macedonian Chamber of Commerce is preparing a program for the appearance of Macedonian companies abroad, which implies a presentation of the agricultural production at international fairs. This program will encompass the Macedonian export offer, which will be reviewed, mainly, in the context of the requests of the EU markets.

This meeting in the Chamber of Commerce was attended by the participants in the International Agricultural Fair "Green Week," which was held in Berlin from January 18 to 28, at which Macedonia was represented by "Proimpeks," with the products of "Anska Reka" from Valandovo,"IPOS-Prespa," and "Jugotutun," from Negotino. The approach of the Macedonian producers to this exhibition was assessed positively, however, with the remark that they fall behind the world standardization norms, especially in terms of packing materials.

[06] SERVICES OF BURGAS HARBOR SAME AS LAST YEAR

Representatives of the Burgas harbor in Bulgaria said yesterday at a meeting in the Macedonian Chamber of Commerce that they are prepared to continue providing services for Macedonia, at last year's prices.

These prices are much lower and more acceptable to Macedonia than the prices offered by other harbors which are accessible to the Macedonian economy.

[07] INITIATIVE FOR GREEK-MACEDONIAN BUSINESS COUNCIL

It is necessary to intensify the contacts between Macedonian and Greek companies, and to establish higher forms of association between them and the formation of a Business Council. This would draw up a joint program, in the function of the advancement of the bilateral business relations and joint appearances on third markets. This was concluded at yesterday's meeting between the head of the Greek Liaisons Office to the Republic of Macedonia Aleksandros Maljas and the president of the Macedonian Chamber of Commerce, Dushan Petreski.

It was announced that an office of the Macedonian Chamber of Commerce will be opened in Thessaloniki soon. In this sense, most acceptable solutions should be sought to achieve better business relations and prices for services rendered at the Thessaloniki harbor.

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