Makedonien|Mazedonien News

Macedonia announced it would open a new embassy in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Brazil. Macedonian foreign minister Nikola Poposki said ambassadors have important political, diplomatic, cultural and economic duties to fulfill on behalf of their country, speaking to diplomats and foreign ambassadors in the foreign ministry building. Underlining that Macedonia plans to increase the number of ambassadors that work abroad, Poposki said Saudi Arabia, UAE and Brazil would be the latest countries on the list with Macedonian embassies. With representatives in the OSCE, EU, NATO, UN, EC, FAO and UNESCO, Macedonia has general consulates working in seven countries.

The Macedonian Army (ARM) received Friday a donation from the United States consisting of military equipment worth 6 million dollars - vehicles, weapons, radio transmitters, etc. Speaking at a donation ceremony, Defense Minister Talat Xhaferi thanked the United States for its continuous support in donating equipments to the ministry and the army since 1996. The US overall assistance for ARM is estimated at over 100 million dollars, he said adding that it was a proof of the country's sincere support toward Macedonia and the policy of partnership and mutual trust between the two countries. The US Ambassador to Macedonia, Paul Wahlers said his country gladly assisted the transformation of ARM forces and MoD's efforts made in this respect. He thanked Macedonia for the support it had been providing to the US in "defending freedom and securing a safer and better world." "The US will remain committed to providing assistance for ARM," he pledged...

There will be new postgraduate studies in film script from the academic 2014/2015 in Ohrid, according to the program of the prestigious Academy of Film and Television Arts – FAMU in Prague, which will be part of the University “Goce Delchev” Stip. Macedonia is the first country with such cooperation with FAMU. The idea is from 2008, and is recently realized by signing memorandum of cooperation with MES to form a mixed team, consisted of eminent personalities: the dean of the College of Prague Pavel Jeh and the Macedonian director Ivo Trajkov, a professor at FAMU and ambassador of Macedonian Culture in the Czech Republic among others. The lectures will be in English and Diploma will be jointly of UGD – Stip and FAMU – Prague. Initially there will be only postgraduate studies on scenario, afterwards directing and photography studies will be introduces, as well as an undergraduate studies. Minister for Education and Science Spiro Ristovski at a press conference said tha...

There are about 1500 patients on dialysis in Macedonia, and the number increases to about 80 new patients every year. One third of them are potential recipients of a kidney, or about 500 patients are waiting for transplantation. On this occasion the Association for renal sick people NEFRON, at today’s press conference promoted brochure “Organ- donation – highest act of philanthropy – Let’s talk about it!”, appealed to all citizens to consider organ – donation. According to statistics from 2012, Macedonia with 13.3 percent per one million is the leader in Europe on kidney transplantation from living donors, especially on cadaveric transplantation. Spain is immediately after Macedonia with 7.7, Greece with 3.6 and Croatia with 2 percent per one million inhabitants performed ​​ kidney transplantation from a living donor. According to statistics, no cadaveric kidney transplantation was performed last year in Macedonia, so the Association NEFRON appealed cadaveric transpla...

Stip public company “Stip project” has made a change of the detailed urban plan to include a new building lot to build industrial capacity, for producing bus bodies. The Director of PE “Stip project”, Alexandar Shumanski specifies that new capacity will be near the industrial zone “North” on the road Stip – Strumica. - This is about a detailed urban plan prepared in draft stage with an area of about 12 acres where the plant will be located and will produce bus bodies for one domestic investor of Stip. He can build the factory and employ about 500 people, Shumanski said. Department of Public Works in Stip next year plans to change the detailed urban plans of the two sites, which will provide additional building lots for light and nonpolluting industry.

It is the largest business event in Europe where emerging, prosperous, and innovative companies from across Europe present potential business before the jury of prominent investors and “business angels” worldwide. Out of the reported over 800 European companies for presenting the final summit, 120 were selected including Macedonian iVote. At the competition, organized by Europe Unlimited, the business potential for further expansion into international markets and innovative solutions of the iVote were assessed as stable, promising and prosperous, which contributed to be declared as winner in the category of ICT companies. - The participation at the European Venture Contest gave us great opportunity to connect with potential investors and partners who helped to provide rapid development and expansion of international markets. This award is recognition of the right approach we have, to conquer new markets, and to deliver the commitment of each member of the family iVote, said ...

Six out of over 100 foreign companies that visited Macedonia in November made a final decision to invest in the country, Visar Fida, Director of the Agency for Foreign Investments, told the Government's open session. One Italian, one US, two Turkish and two British companies intend to kick start business operations in Macedonia and their names will be published in two-three weeks, Fida said, pointing out that negotiations are underway with another five-six companies. He commended the work of Macedonia's economic promoters, saying that the above mentioned investments are a result of their efforts. "They have been also working on promoting the export and Macedonia as a tourist destination," Fida said.  

Skopje. Railway line between Macedonia and Bulgaria will be built by a German company, Deutsche Welle informed in its programme for Macedonia.  The media comments further that the Macedonian railway company and German company Wiebe are to sign the contract for the construction of the Kumanovo-Beljakovce section on Friday, December 20. The section is the first out of three stage of the railway route of Corridor 8. The section is 30 kilometres long. The project’s realisation will cost EUR 45 million, provided from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. 

 Healthcare cooperation between Macedonia and Russia is becoming more active and more effective. Attempts are being made to strengthen the exchange of experience and knowledge between Macedonian and Russian doctors. This was announced Wednesday in Moscow by the countries' health ministers, Nikola Todorov and Veronika Skvortsova, MIA reports. "We can foster full cooperation in all healthcare sectors, including the development of health reforms in the two countries," said Minister Skvortsova. "We've discussed several vital issues in relation to healthcare, such as the launch of a serious cooperation involving exchange of experience and knowledge between the doctors in Macedonia and Russia," noted Todorov. The Macedonian Minister at the meeting presented the reforms implemented in Macedonia's health sector, such as the procurement of state-of-the-art equipment in all health institutions across the country, construction of new hospitals an...

India and Macedonia signed a new agreement for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion (DTAA) with respect to taxes on income here today. The agreement was signed by External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Poposki. Once the DTAA enters into force, it will provide relief to taxpayers from double taxation and, thereby, stimulate the flow of capital, technology and personnel between both the countries and will further strengthen the economic relationship between the two countries, an official press release said. According to it, the salient features of the agreement are: *The agreement provides relief from double taxation to residents of India earning income in Macedonia and residents of Macedonia earning income in India. *The agreement provides that taxation of dividend, interest and royalty in the source country will not exceed 10 %. *The agreement provides for taxation of business income in the s...

By Metodija Koloski - posted Thursday, 12 December 2013 In light of the recent proposal to the United Nations by Greece's deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Evangelos Turkoglu Venizelos, to change the name of Macedonia to "Slavo-Albanian Macedonia," Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop should put an end to the current unjust Australian policy of referring to the nation as "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia." Australia should immediately recognise Macedonia under its constitutional name Republic of Macedonia. It is time for Australia to send a clear message to the Hellenic Republic to abandon its nationalist positions once and for all. The latest Greek proposal makes an entire mockery of the United Nations system, one that Australia has taken a keen interest in maintaining given its role at the UN Security Council. In the '90s, Venizelos was instrumental in advising the Greek government to put a three-ye...

Macedonia's best kickboxer Dimitar Gjorgiev won the world title in WAKO Kickboxing at the world championship in Turkey. In the category to 74kg in the light kick discipline Gjorgiev defeated and dominated Poland's Jerzy Wronski. Gjorgiev won 3-0 which brought the fans in Antalya to their feet. Prior to his final match, the Macedonian dominated kickboxers from Latvia, Moldova and Turkey. Other participants from Macedonia were close to a medal, particularly Nenad Manojlovski who lost a point in the final seconds due to a referee decision which left the Macedonian without a bronze medal. Dalibor Ognenov, Kristina Stojcevska, Stevka Jankovska and Milan Kubin all placed in the top eight in their respective categories.

Five hospitals will be built in 2014 - a clinical center, PET center and hospitals in Skopje, Stip and Kicevo, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski announced on Friday. "A tender for construction of the clinical center is expected to be issued in December. The company that will win the tender is hopefully going to start building the new clinical center between February and April. The financial structure has been completed," Gruevski said after inaugurating a school sports hall in the Skopje settlement of Gorno Lisice. The Kozle hospital is under construction and is set to be completed next year. Construction works for the Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Center - an investment worth Euro 12 million - have been launched recently. "These are the five new constructions and a project on overhauling existing facilities is currently under way. These are serious investment and in my opinion for a long time in Macedonia there were no such investments in the healthcare...

The European Commission President José Manuel Barroso’s press office apologized to MIA’s correspondent from Brussels over the use of abbreviation “FYROM” in the Thursday’s written response over the EC President’s meeting with President Gjorge Ivanov. After last evening’s e-mail correspondence, the press office sent a brief response over the Brussels meeting, using the abbreviation of international reference “former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”. The EU has agreed that if Macedonia’s constitutional name is not used, then the reference should be applied in full. “Your remark has been noted. We apologize. We did not want to cause any harm or inconvenience. Please use the reference in full, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia at places reading ‘FYROM’ in our response”, said the Barroso Office.

In March, next year should start regular rail freight from Macedonia to Thessaloniki port. As announced today the managing director of the port Stiliano Ageludis, Macedonian companies must consider this priority. - The introduction of regular rail lines, agreed at the meetings with representatives of institutions in both countries will reduce transport costs and we expect to increase transport, said Ageludis at the press conference after the presentation at the Economic Chamber of Macedonia. Marine and rail traffic, he stressed, are the cheapest. The combination of these two can reduce costs by 20 to 30 percent. According to him, for modernizations of the port in Thessaloniki were invested 30 million euro, and the same amount will be invested in the new equipment, machinery, excavators, forklifts. The port operates continuously, 24 hours, and prices of services are not changed over the years despite the economic crisis. - For these reasons we are the most com...

Macedonia not to import GMO food is the main recommendation of the final conference “Impact of genetically modified foods on young people” organized by the Coalition of youth organizations SEGA as part of COHEIRS “Citizen observers of Health and Environment: Initiative Responsibility and Sustainability” in Skopje. Director of SEGA, Zoran Ilievski presented the recommendations of the panel discussions, aimed at greater control over imported food and raw materials. - We wanted to raise the awareness of the public of the use of GMO food, and to convey different opinions related to this topic. The recommendations expressed in this conference clearly indicate that the public does not want to consume GMO food. Greater control over the products and all food which is imported is needed, allowing the public to be protected from adverse consequences, Ilievski said. In addition to these recommendations, the conference pointed Macedonia not to produce GMO foods, imported seeds and see...