Athens News Agency: News in English (AM), 98-06-11

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr>

NEWS IN ENGLISH

ATHENS, GREECE, 11/06/1998 (ANA)

MAIN HEADLINES

• Gov't says new int'l airport to open March 1, 2001
• FYROM foreign minister in Greece
• Arsenis: teacher appointment exams supported by social consensus
• Med Seal info centre
• Greek exporters urged to merge
• OA shows interest in Albanian air transports
• Simitis adamant on Ionian Bank's privatisation
• Court again rules Ionian Bank strike illegal
• Proposal for more doctors in border areas
• Greece carries out over 10,000 infrastructure projects
• Greek stocks slump on profit-taking
• Greek shipyards need to modernise to tackle unemployment
• Greek state tourism workers launch daily stoppages
• OTE denies report of Intracom involvement in Moldova talks
• General Bank profits increase by 18 per cent
• Petrol prices decrease
• Greece, Japan sign cooperation protocol
• Typhoid killed Alexander the Great
• Weather
• Foreign exchange

NEWS IN DETAIL

The new Athens international airport at Spata will open on March 1, 2001, Public Works Minister Costas Laliotis told reporters during a tour of the worksite by Prime Minister Costas Simitis yesterday.

The Eleftherios Venizelos Airport, east of the capital, will replace the existing facility at Hellenikon on Athens' southern coast. The project's budget is 658 billion drachmas.

"The timetable (for construction) is being strictly adhered to," Mr. Laliotis said.

Also being built are a tunnel for a public utilities network, internal roads and the administration buil-ding, DAA President Haris Stamatopoulos said.

FYROM foreign minister in Greece

The foreign minister of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Blagoya Hatzinski, will visit Greece in the next 15 days at the invitation of his Greek counterpart Theodoros Pangalos.

In a related development, a Skopje newspaper yesterday detailed Mr. Pangalos' remarks on the Kosovo issue and regarding Greek-FYROM relations.

According to press reports, the Greek FM said that in the event of an influx of refugees from Kosovo to FYROM and Albania, the European Union and the international community must convene to examine the issue, instead of allowing it to become a Balkan or just an Albanian-FYROM problem.

Arsenis: teacher appointment exams supported by social consensus

Education Minister Gerasimos Arsenis yesterday referred to the vehement objections voiced by many educators and their unions over a new system of public school system appointments through state examinations.

"We have a law backed by a broad political and social consensus, and the government applies that law," Mr. Arsenis stressed in an interview to the ANA.

"However, we are in need of the willingness of the 46,500 educators who wish to take part in the exams.

"Then, we have some groups trying to abolish the state, and bar the government from implementing the law. That means they are refusing their colleagues' right to sit the exam," he underlined.

Mr. Arsenis further said that those who contributed to the creation of such an atmosphere were in the minority, although their behaviour affected the entire sector.

Med Seal info centre

The Society for the Study and Protection of the Mediterranean Seal will inaugurate its information centre on Mylos on Sunday.

The society's "LIFE '96" programme, partially funded by the European Union, figures to create several similar centres in the Aegean in order to protect this endangered mammal.

Greek exporters urged to merge

National Economy Minister Yiannos Papantoniou yesterday urged Greek exporters to join forces through mergers and the creation of large enterprises in a direct, planned and flexible way, with a view to boosting their presence in Balkan and Black Sea region markets.

He issued the call at a conference in Athens on emerging markets of southeastern Europe.

US ambassador in Athens Nicholas Burns, who also addressed the conference, stressed that there was tremendous potential, not only for boosting economic cooperation between Greece and the US, but also for joint investment by joint companies in the two re gions.

US companies already active in Greece could be selected as an initial basis for such activities, given the investment interest emanating from the 2004 Olympic Games and the dynamism of Greece's tourist sector, he added.

OA shows interest in Albanian air transports

The transport and communications ministry is examining the possibility of creating a small air transport network in Albania.

According to reports, Olympic Aviation in cooperation with Albania's state- run carrier and the possible participation of others - maybe the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia - is considering an air transport carrier linking Thessaloniki with Tirana, Tirana with Korce and Gjirokaster and even Tirana with Skopje.

The dispatch of two Olympic Aviation Dornier aircraft is being examined. The ministry aims at expanding Olympic's role beyond just serving Albania, using the neighbouring country's traffic rights and extending its routes from Thessaloniki to New York via Tirana.

Simitis adamant on Ionian Bank's privatisation

Prime Minister Costas Simitis yesterday said the government will not accept "lawlessness" or efforts to block a modernisation of society, in referring to Ionian Bank employees' mobilisations and recent reactions by educators' unions to scrap a new exam-ba sed hiring system.

Speaking in Parliament, Mr. Simitis defended the government's policies while answering tabled questions by Democratic Social Move-ment (DHKKI) leader Dimitris Tsovolas and ruling PASOK deputy Minas Stavrakakis.

The premier noted that the privatisation of Ionian was the only appropriate and correct solution to dislodge it (bank) from the public sector, adding: "if there was a merger, 3,000 employees would have lost their jobs."

Court again rules Ionian Bank strike illegal

An Athens court yesterday ruled illegal a strike by Ionian Bank employees protesting against the government's plan to privatise the bank.

The ruling, which is the third to declare blocks of the rolling stoppage illegal, applies to a walkout on June 6-10 called by the General Confederation of Greek Labour (GSEE), an umbrella group representing nearly a million workers in the private and public sectors.

The Athens court of first instance said GSEE was not empowered to call strikes in single enterprises. It had failed to give management 48-hour notice of the stoppage and neglected to provide skeleton staff, as required by law.

The court further ruled yesterday that the latest strike had contravened the two previous court rulings.

It slapped fines of 500,000 drachmas for each day the stoppage continues on GSEE, the national bank unions federation (OTOE), Ionian's union, and Ionian's union president and general secretary.

On June 19, shareholders of Commercial Bank will be asked to endorse Ionian's privatisation.

Proposal for more doctors in border areas

The National Society "Young Doctors" (Neoi Yiatroi) has taken an initiative to send young unemployed physicians to border and island regions in the summer to offer better medical services.

An announcement by the group said medical care in border regions is unacceptable, with residents deprived of public or private care of any kind, owing mainly to geographical isolation.

As the situation is expected to deteriorate during the summer, the group decided that 10 colleagues pay visits to such areas, lasting 15 to 30 days, in order to offer medical services.

The group also proposed a series of measures to the state and the Central Union of Greek Municipalities and Communities (KEDKE), including the hiring of doctors by passenger vessels sailing to the islands and carrying out preventative examinations of pupils.

Greece carries out over 10,000 infrastructure projects

Greek Environment, Town Planning and Public Works Minister Costas Laliotis yesterday welcomed progress in the implementation of major construction projects around the country.

Mr. Laliotis said that the ministry would manage more than 10,000 infrastructure projects in Greece in a period spanning 1994 to 2000. The schemes are worth 4.3 trillion drachmas.

He said that a tender for construction of a tunnel on the Athens to Corinth motorway would be held in July. A tender for the construction of a tunnel for Maliakos Bay in eastern mainland Greece had already been held, he said.

The Egnatia Way, along with five ports and nine vertical access roads towards neighbouring Balkan countries, had secured 550 billion drachmas in funding and construction was proceeding at a fast pace. The project employs 3,500 workers.

Mr. Laliotis said that more sections of Egnatia Way would be opened to traffic in 1998.

A motorway linking Patras to Athens, Thessaloniki and a border post at Evzones was at an advanced stage of construction. Three thousand workers are employed, he said.

A project for the construction of a bridge over Patraikos Bay linking the Peloponese to central Greece was in its early stages, and a tunnel linking Aktio to Preveza in western Greece was 75 percent completed.

Mr. Laliotis said that the Athens metro project was 72 percent completed, and 4,000 workers were employed.

Construction had begun on a motorway project linking western Athens to a new airport in Spata. The project was expected to employ 5,000 workers.

Greek stocks slump on profit-taking

Greek equities ended sharply lower yesterday as investors scooped up their profits in the wake of fresh turmoil in Asian markets.

Traders said the market lacked incentives but the underlying mood remained positive over progress expected in the government's privatisation plan.

The general index ended 1.51 percent off at 2,541.49 points with all sector indices losing ground.

Banks fell 1.34 percent, Insurance dropped 1.65 percent, Leasing ended 0.51 percent off, Investment eased 1.02 percent, Construction plunged 4.04 percent, Industrials fell 1.16 percent, Miscellaneous ended 2.04 percent down and Holding dropped 2.72 per cent.

The parallel market index for small cap companies ended 1.14 percent lower.

Trade was light to moderate with turnover edging down to 48.7 billion drachmas.

National Bank of Greece ended at 41,000 drachmas, Ergobank at 27,030, Alpha Credit Bank at 31,930, Delta Dairy at 4,280, Titan Cement at 21,400, Intracom at 25,000 and Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation at 8, 405.

Greek shipyards need to modernise to tackle unemployment

Greek shipyards need fresh incentives to modernise and return to profitable levels of 20 years ago in order to tackle growing unemployment, the National Labour Institute said in a survey on the development of Piraeus.

Piraeus is a major shipyard and industrial zone with 1,400 firms in ship repairs, light industry and fertilisers employing 7,500 workers, said the survey, which was released yesterday.

It noted that problems already facing Piraeus' industrial zone were being exacerbated by rising unemployment as a result of changes in industry and technology. The jobless rate in the suburb of Perama, traditionally a ship repair centre, is around 80 percent.

The survey is part of a European Union programme called ADAPT that tries to forestall unemployment by adjusting production systems, and helping workers adapt to industrial and technological change.

Greek state tourism workers launch daily stoppages

Workers at the Greek National Tourism Organisation (GNTO) have embarked on daily three-hour work stoppages to protest against the privatisation of GNTO's assets and the non-payment of outstanding wages to staff abroad.

The stoppages began yesterday and will last until Monday. On Tuesday, GNTO's staff groups will meet to decide on escalating the protests, staff representatives told a news conference yesterday.

GNTO falls under the jurisdiction of the development ministry.

OTE denies report of Intracom involvement in Moldova talks

The Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation's (OTE) board of directors issued an announcement yesterday stating that in negotiations for the purchase of 40 per cent of the Moldavian Telecoms Organisation (Moldtelecom), OTE is exclusively represented by the Credit Suisse-First Boston Bank (CSFB).

The announcement came following an article by the Athens daily "Kathimerini" yesterday morning, which claimed that OTE's negotiator with the Moldavian government was Costas Tsoukalidis, identified by the paper as a high- ranking executive at the Intracom group and second only to founder and president Socratis Kokkalis.

OTE's board said that such rumours were spread by those annoyed by the state-run utility's presence in Balkan markets.

General Bank profits increase by 18 per cent

General Bank's pre-tax depreciation and predictions profits amounted to 4.27 billion drachmas in 1997, increasing by 18.4 per cent compared to 1996.

The dividend to be distributed to bank shareholders for the same year will amount to 115 drachmas per share.

The above results of the General Bank were announced by General Bank president and former PASOK minister Giorgos Daskalakis at a general assembly of shareholders.

General Bank now has 91 branches throughout Greece.

Petrol prices decrease

The retail prices of gasoline will decrease for a week.

According to announcements by the Public Petroleum Corp. (DEP) and the development ministry, gasoline will decrease by 0.60 drachmas per litre, diesel by 0.70 drachmas per litre and heating oil by 0.60 drachmas per litre.

In the Attica area and the Thessaloniki prefecture super gasoline will cost 214.40 drachmas per litre and unleaded 198.50 drachmas per litre.

Greece, Japan sign cooperation protocol

Greece and Japan yesterday signed a protocol of cooperation in the cultural sector, providing for artistic and cultural events between the Delphi European Cultural Centre and the Sizouoka Culture Centre.

The agreement was signed by Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos and the Governor of the Sizouoka Region Yoshinubu Isikawa.

"This is a step forward in the framework of the Cultural Olympiad and with the active participation of Japan we will proceed with further cooperation, " Mr. Venizelos said.

Typhoid killed Alexander the Great

It was not poison or malaria that killed Alexander the Great. The man whose ancient empire ranged from Egypt to India probably died of typhoid fever, according to Thursday's "New England Journal of Medicine."

The death of Alexander the Great at the age of 33 has long been shrouded in mystery. Various historical versions agree that the Macedonian king who conquered much of the ancient known world returned to Babylon where he attended several banquets and drank a great deal of wine.

After finishing the last glass Alexander cried out in pain and said it felt like he had been "hit in the liver with an arrow," according to one version of the events.

Other historians, such as Aristobulus, said Alexander was seized with a raging fever. Some claim he had chills and sweats before falling into a coma and dying 11 days later on June 10, 323 BC. A number of historians speculated his lieutenants, dissatisfied with Alexander's rule, poisoned the wine.

There were also reports that several days elapsed before he could be buried, and signs of decomposition were notably absent. Now, researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine working with historians report that Alexander probably died of typhoid fever.

WEATHER

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

(C.E.)

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