Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-10-23

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

CONTENTS

[01] Patras-Papantoniou

[02] Soccer-Iraklis-UEFA-Defeat

[03] Composer-conviction-Defacing Greek flag

[04] Olympic Games-Projects-Public works minister

[05] Syros-Culture-Tourism-Meeting

[06] National Bank of Greece-internet services

[07] Pouliadis Group-new acquisition

[08] Greece-trade unions

[09] IOSCO-ADEX-membership

[10] ASE-close

[11] Datamedia-Turkey-deal

[12] Cultural Olympiad - Director - Resignation

[01] Patras-Papantoniou

National Economy Minister Yiannos Papantoniou said on Monday the government placed great importance on regional development, adding that 80 per cent of the 3rd Community Support Framework (CSF), totalling 17.5 trillion drachmas, will be used for Greek regions.

Papantoniou was focusing on growth prospects after the country's accession to Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), during an address at an event organised in Patras by the Economic Chamber of Western Greece.

"The 3rd Community Support Framework constitutes the development tool aiming at achieving real convergence with the European Union. The total programme amounts to 17.5 trillion drachmas. We secured them after tough negotiations at the Berlin summit. It is the biggest development package ever to be managed by our country," he said.

Papantoniou said the new regional operation programme for western Greece is 75 per cent higher than the previous one. It will increase from 125 billion drachmas to 220 billion drachmas. He also said that the region's development would be additionally funded by the Interreg III programme with 18 billion drachmas.

[02] Soccer-Iraklis-UEFA-Defeat

Iraklis Thessaloniki lost 3-1 to Kaiserslautern of Germany in a UEFA Soccer Cup second round first leg match played at the Kaftantzoglion stadium in Thessaloniki on Monday night.

Kaiserslautern's goals were scored by Klosse (7), Christov (35) and Tavlaridis (64-own goal), while Konstantinou scored for Iraklis from the penalty spot (46).

[03] Composer-conviction-Defacing Greek flag

A composer and performer was convicted on Monday to four months imprisonment for defacing the Greek flag, the image of which he used for advertising, replacing the Orthodox cross on the upper left corner with the Communist hammer and sickle sign.

Jimmy Panousis, a self-styled iconoclast composer and performer, was however acquitted of charges of aiding and abetting those who actually placed the advertising posters on street corners and light posts around Athens.

Panousis appealed and was released.

Speaking, during his defence, Panousis said that he is an artist and not a criminal, adding that the people place limits to his art and not the state.

[04] Olympic Games-Projects-Public works minister

Environment, Town Planning and Public Works Minister Costas Laliotis said he was certain Greece would organise the best possible Olympic Games, during a press conference on Monday, following his meeting with Prime Minister Costas Simitis and Transport and Communications Minister Christos Verelis.

Laliotis said that they discussed all transportation issues regarding the greater Athens area, in light of the Games.

[05] Syros-Culture-Tourism-Meeting

The 1st Culture-Tourism Meeting, organised by the municipality of Ermoupolis' cultural centre and the Ministry of the Aegean on theme museums in the Aegean island complex, came to a successful conclusion on the island of Syros.

Minister to the Aegean Nikos Sifounakis, who attended the meeting between October 18-20, said "the islands of the Aegean should be assisted in the direction of creating theme museum exhibitions capable of contributing to the preservation of agricultural, biotechnical and every form of popular culture, primarily from the 18th centrury to the mid-20th century.

Apart from special scientists, over 100 first and second stage local administration officials from the five Aegean prefectures participated in the meeting, as well as many personalities from the culture sector.

[06] National Bank of Greece-internet services

National Bank of Greece launched a new series of expanded services on the internet, offering its customers the ability to participate in public offerings on the Athens Stock Exchange.

Its website (http//www.nbg.gr) was suitably re-designed also to offer customers full information on candidate companies.

National Bank already offers its customers a wide range of internet services, such as banking transactions, money transfer, share transactions, etc.

[07] Pouliadis Group-new acquisition

Pouliadies Group said on Monday that its parent company Pouliades Associates acquired a 25 percent equity stake in Syntax Information for an undisclosed sum, in a move aimed to exploit synergies and facilitate Syntax's investment programme.

Syntax, founded in 1994, is active in SAP applications, e-learning, network management and consultancy services. The company represents international companies Merant, Rational, Candle, Iona, Utimaco, NetIQ, Excelon, Starquest, Flexus, Computalinx, Transoft, in Greece and Cyprus.

It has a customer base of 300 and reported a turnover of 742 million drachmas and profits of 205 million drachmas last year.

Syntax plans to list its shares on the Athens Stock Exchange.

[08] Greece-trade unions

"A social dialogue is not an end in itself and we expect to conclude contacts with out social partners in the next two weeks leading to constructive proposals," Labour Minister Tassos Yiannitsis said on Monday.

Speaking to reporters in Patra, Yiannitsis acknowledged that conditions in the labour market were not satisfactory.

Yiannitsis attended a conference on Healthcare and Safety at Work, organised by the Federation of Greek Industries, the Union of Peloponese-Western Greece Industries and Titan Cement SA.

He said that healthcare and safety at work were very significant issues that determined the quality and the development of a society.

"Greece seeks to modernise this sector and adopts new EU regulations," Yiannitsis said.

A total of 8,000 people were killed in labour accidents in Europe last year. In Greece, a total of 32,200 labour accidents were recorded in 1988, and 18,600 in 1998. "This fall is satisfactory, but we will continue our efforts," he said.

[09] IOSCO-ADEX-membership

The Athens Derivatives Exchange is to be accepted as associate member to the International Organisation of Securities' Commissions (IOSCO), along with Chicago and Toronto, following a proposal by IOSCO's executive committee.

The proposal, adopted last Thursday, October 19, is to be submitted to approval at IOSCO's world conference in Stockholm, in June 2001.

The Athens Stock Exchange was accepted as associate member last May in Sydney.

[10] ASE-close

Equity prices ended sharply lower on Monday, dramatically reversing a two-day rebound the previous week, as investors seeked to take early profits on the Athens Stock Exchange.

The reversal disappointed those who had been expecting the continuation of the market's advance, traders said.

Dealers said persistent low liquidity was the main obstacle to any effort to push the market higher.

The general index ended 1.86 percent lower at 3,717.05 points. Analysts said the market has found resistance at the 3,850 level and predicted it would find support at the 3,650 level.

Turnover was a low 49 billion drachmas. The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended 1.69 percent lower at 2,150.11 points, and the FTSE/ASE 40 index fell 3.11 percent to 441.76 points.

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended 5.08 percent lower at 425.70 points.

[11] Datamedia-Turkey-deal

Datamedia, a Greek IT company, on Monday announced a FileNet (hardware and system software) project deal with Turkish bank Yapi Kredi, worth 1.6 billion drachmas (around 4.0 million US dollars).

The deal establishes Datamedia's strong presence in the neighbouring country through its subsidiaries DMT and Porcan Holding, in which Datamedia holds equity stakes of 95 percent and 50 percent, respectively.

The project is the biggest information management project in the wider southeastern Europe and Mediterranean regions. The previous, worth 1.3 billion drachmas, was a project with Cyprus' finance ministry by Datamedia and IBM Cyprus.

The Yapi Kredi deal envisages the initial supply of 1,000 users, covering more than one million documents and more than 25 million pages of information under a pilot programme.

[12] Cultural Olympiad - Director - Resignation

Well-known Cypriot-born film director Michael Cacoyannis has resigned from the post of president of the Cultural Olympiad S.A., it was announced here on Monday.

Cacoyannis said in an announcement that he had tendered his resignation in a letter sent last Friday to the Greek culture minister.

He said he had resigned because plans for the Cultural Olympiad "cannot proceed" due to the "inflexible structure of the Cultural Olympiad S.A. and bureaucracy".

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