The next meeting of the Commission for political issues of the Council in Europe, to be held in Paris in September, will tackle the draft-report on the acceptance of Macedonia to the Council, Radio Skopje reports. According to well-informed sources, rumors in Strasbourg say that there are realistic chances of Macedonia being accepted to the Council. Namely, the recommendation for accession will be ready as soon as September.
This was also confirmed during the meeting between Macedonian Foreign Minister Stevo Crvenkovski and the secretary- general of the Council Transhiz, who will visit Macedonia in the second half of September.
The Second Congress of the Socialist party of Macedonia, a partner in the Alliance for Macedonia, was held on Saturday, in the presence of 220 delegates. Kiro Popovski was re- elected president.
The Congress adopted a program declaration and verified the program and statute of the party. Otherwise, other guests at the Congress were the socialists from Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania, Italy, Croatia and Greece.
At its last session, the Government also adopted the Report on the work of the Institute for payment operations of the Republic of Macedonia for 1994. It was concluded that the with the round off of the process of transformation of the Service for social accounting and auditing and the formation of two new institutions - the Institute for payment operations and the Institute for public income, the Institute continued to carry out the functions from its competence and the obligations that resulted from certain regulations and the Program and measures of the economic policy of the Government of the Republic of Macedonia.
An increase in the volume of production has been noticed in "Pelagonija," factory for yeast and alcohol, the milk dairy and "Zito Bitola."
The production in the factory for yeast and alcohol is constantly increasing. In the first five months this year, over two million kilograms of yeast were produced, or 14% more than the same period last year. The production of the additive for baked goods ADI-PEK-N also notes an increase in this period, which started being produced in 1993. Experts in the factory expect even greater output. The alcohol production has also grown, 11.2%.
At the Bitola dairy, the investment program for a new assortment is underway. Namely, it's a series of new products that are in great demand on the markets, and foremost, the production of tetrapak of one liter, 0,750 and 0,500 l. 3 million DM have been invested in the supply of new equipment, which will also enable the production of various cocktails, basically, for milk, fruit yoghurts, etc. The construction work that is carried out by "Beton," is almost over, while the assembly of the equipment will start in August.
The assembly of a new machine for the production of cardboard packing for eggs and fruit is underway at "Socialen borec." It will have a positive effect on the work of the organization, which is owed money to the excess of 1.2 million DM by various firms. The factory for clay productions of the construction company "Pelagonija" also has more work now, especially following the earthquake, as a number of citizens are renovating their houses. Up to one million units of various profiles are produced every month.
The combine "Pelagonija" says it expected a record harvest this year, to the excess of 40,000 tones of wheat.
By June 24, only 0.5% of the wheat harvest was finished, which means that the main activities are still ahead.
However, as it was said at yesterday's meeting with the press, it is followed with numerous problems. In view of the enormous stocks from last year's harvest - 121,000 tones, the capacities are not able to take in even half of the new yield, and at the moment, there seems to be no way out in solving this situation.
At the end of the news conference, it was concluded that some kind of solution has to be found immediately, because, otherwise, the planting for next year's harvest will not be able to be done, while the mill-baking industry will be found in an even worse situation.
The production of shoes and clothing, in the first four months of this year has dropped 27.7% in comparison with the same period last year, while the drop in the production of leather and fur is 25.8%.
In order to overcome this extremely unfavorable situation, which can even jeopardize the survival of this branch, four solutions were suggested at yesterday's session of the Association of the tanning industry with the Macedonian Chamber of Commerce: the introduction of export stimulations, the protection of domestic resources of raw materials of the leather from excessive exports, speeding up the revision of the customs rates upon the import of raw materials which are not produced in the country, as well as reducing the import dues and the tax on the sale of shoes, to a total of 30%.