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*Due Diligence, Business Intelligence, Asset Retrieval, Debt Recovery* TT Business Intelligence Report Vol. 2, No. 48, 12 June 2003 Business Intelligence, Crime, Corruption and Debt in C&E/SE Europe and the FSU UPCOMING CONFERENCES LVA'S "4th CIS BUSINESS SUMMIT AND 1st ECONOMIC FORUM OF KAZAKHSTAN" This event will take place on 25-27 June 2003 at the Churchill Intercontinental Hotel, London, United Kingdom. For further information, please contact Victoria Roberts, tel: +44 (0)20 8795 7619; fax: +44 (0)20 8795 2977; email: [email protected]; W: www.lva.co.uk EUROMONEY'S "RUSSIA & THE CIS 2003: ECONOMIC CHALLENGES FOR THE 21st CENTURY" This event will take place on 9-10 September 2003 at the Radisson Slavyanskaya Hotel, Moscow, Russia. For further information, please contact Susie Teuton, tel: +44 (0)20 7779 8366; fax: +44 (0)20 7779 8795; email: [email protected]; W: www.euromoneyconferences.com EUROMONEY'S "SOUTH EAST EUROPE: THE 3rd REGIONAL FINANCE & INVESTMENT CONFERENCE" This event will take place on 21-22 October 2003 at the Hotel Croatia, Dubrovnik, Croatia. For further information, please contact Susie Teuton, tel: +44 (0)20 7779 8366; fax: +44 (0)20 7779 8795; email: [email protected]; W: www.euromoneyconferences.com BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA E.B.R.D. PRESENTS NEW STRATEGY FOR BiH: REFORMS & SINGLE ECONOMIC SPACE The EBRD has presented its new strategy for BiH for the next two years, available on the EBRD site as of yesterday. The document reads that considerable progress has been registered in BiH towards establishing a market economy, yet a great effort still has to be made to achieving self-sustainability and most of all, to create a single economic space. According to the EBRD, the push for reforms based on the rule of law and a sustainable economy must also be based on the partnership between the BiH authorities, the international community and the Office of the High Representative. The document also states that in spite of low inflation, tightened fiscal discipline and an average annual GDP growth of 4%, BiH's economy is still fragile with widespread poverty and unemployment resulting in GDP per capita of about USD 1,400. In order to help address these issues, the EBRD plans to focus more on the BiH private sector and financial assistance to SMEs, improving the investment climate as well as presenting new investment projects in infrastructure. The strategy underlines the need of strengthening the common approach by the two entities - the Federation of BiH (FBiH) and Republika Srpska (RS) - towards economic development. The importance of the EU integration process and regional co-operation under the Stability Pact initiatives, and especially the signing of Free Trade Agreements with the countries in the region was also emphasised in the document. The Bank also reiterated its commitment to assist local governments in promoting democratic reforms, combating crime and corruption, strengthen legislation and speeding up the privatisation process. The EBRD has been one of the biggest donors for BiH, having inserted about EUR 230mn in thirty projects in the country to date. (IntelliNews 12.vi.03) BULGARIA MAJORITY STAKE IN MOBILTEL TO BE SOLD IN JUL-03 A majority stake in the Bulgarian mobile operator MobilTel, set to be sold at auction next month, should be seen as very attractive to a number of western European operators, according to local media reports. The company's owners, a syndicate of Bayerische Landesbank of Germany, BAWAG/PSK of Austria and financial group Management Trust Holding, announced last week that it was seeking a strategic partner for Mobiltel. The auction is expected to raise 1.5 billion euros for a majority stake in the company, that has performed remarkably well over the last few years. MobilTel leads the Bulgarian market with net profits of 144 million euros on revenues of 380 million euros in a country with a mobile penetration rate of 33%. The company first launched its digital mobile services in 1995, under the brand Citron GSM. While the company saw limited growth due to the severe economic crisis in the region after 1997, it emerged as the country's leading mobile operator in 2000 and has grown to a total of 1.9 million users by the end of last year, with a market share of 69%. More recently it has been challenged by Greek-owned rival Globul, and has moved to improve and expand services. MobilTel selected Siemens to install GPRS infrastructure and wants to introduce a 3G service by the end of next year. It has also invested roughly 154 million euros in network upgrades and extension, giving it coverage in the country of 69%, which it hopes to expand to 100% by the end of 2003. (NewsBase 11.vi.03) CROATIA CENTRAL BANK APPROVES MERGER OF RIJECKA BANKA AND ERSTE & STEIERMARKISCHE BANK The Central Bank has approved the merger of Rijecka banka and Erste & Steiermärkische Bank. The bank would operate under the name Erste & Steiermärkische with headquarters in Rijeka. Reportedly, the consolidated bank should hold third place based on its assets after the merger. The two banks have assets that sum up to around HRK 15bn (EUR 2bn). Rijecka entered extensive renovations of its branches and should invest around EUR 9.6mn for the purpose by the end of this year. Erste & Steiermärkische acquired Rijecka banka back in 2002. (IntelliNews 12.iv.03) JURCIC: FINAL BIDS FOR I.N.A. OIL AND GAS COMPANY EXPECTED BY END-JUNE The final bids for 25% +1 share in INA oil and gas company should be submitted by the end of June, finance minister Ljubo Jurcic stated. The remaining contenders for INA are Russian Rosneft, Hungarian MOL and Austrian OMV. Originally, it was expected that the privatisation of INA would be completed by the end of March, however that was later postponed for the beginning of June, and later on it was postponed till the end of June. It seems that the process might well exceed the preset deadline again, and the procedure to be postponed for the end of September. The privatisation process was initiated in back in March 2002. According to Jurcic, the cabinet does not intend to initiate any new privatisation processes in this mandate. (IntelliNews 12.iv.03) CZECH REPUBLIC C.E.Z. PLANS NEW BOND ISSUE FOR JUNE 23 Power giant CEZ has scheduled for June 23 a new bond issue with the fixed interest rate of 3.35%. The volume of the issue is CZK 3 bln, payable in 2008. The chief manager of the issue is CSOB, with syndicated subscribers including ABN AMRO Bank, ING Bank, Ceskomoravska Zarucni a Rozvojova Banka, HVB Bank Czech Republic, Citibank and Komercni Banka. (PBJ 12.vi.03) LAST FORMAL COMPLAINT AGAINST C.M.E. WITHDRAWN The Czech Republic withdrew the last formal complaint against US company CME in a dispute over a failure to protect CME's investment in Czech TV market leader TV Nova, according to a report in Mlada fronta Dnes. The legal dispute over the outcome of arbitration proceedings, according to which the Czech Republic had to pay CME 10.5 billion crowns in compensation, is over now, said an appeal court in Stockholm. But the whole case will be closed only after the issue of court fees has been resolved, which may take several weeks, the paper reported. The Czech Republic filed the last complaint against CME on March 25 this year, although the Czech finance ministry denied its existence for a long time. After the Czech Republic lost a dispute over the objectivity of the said arbitration on May 15, this complaint no longer made sense, and in effect the Czech Republic withdrew the charges. (NewsBase 11.vi.03) HUNGARY N.B.H. RAISES KEY INTEREST RATE AS FORINT SLIPS Hungary's central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to strengthen the forint to its preferred rate of 250 against the Euro and help it combat inflation. The bank raised its key rate to 7.5% at a policy meeting yesterday, citing the forint's exchange rate. The forint rose to 258.75 per euro after the decision from 263.45 earlier. It was 258 on Friday in Budapest, before a holiday on Monday. Hungary devalued the forint last week to boost economic growth but the forint fell more than policy makers anticipated, prompting National Bank of Hungary (NBH) President Zsigmond Járai to say the bank would raise interest rates unless the forint recovers. (BBJ 11.vi.03) 60% OF HUNGARIAN COMPANIES UNPREPARED FOR E.U. ACCESSION Hungarian entrepreneurial interest groups have indicated that they are in agreement with the recent statement made by the European chambers, which said 60% of Hungarian companies admit to being unprepared for changes resulting from EU accession. Laszlo Parragh, chairman of the Hungarian Chamber of Trade and Industry, claims that although there are many programmes aimed at providing assistance in preparation for the EU, these are not effective enough. He believes companies should concentrate more on integration rather than preparations. Miklos Karolyi, secretary general of the National Association of Entrepreneurs and Employers (VOSZ), considers the lack of sufficient foreign language capacity to be a crucial disadvantage for Hungarian enterprises. Entrepreneurs should at least be competent at English, he says. There is also substantial controversy surrounding the accreditation of certain vocational qualifications. Perhaps the most serious problem is that companies have so far been informed merely about general facts of the EU without gaining field-specific information in certain management areas. (NewsBase 11.vi.03) KAZAKHSTAN KAZAKH PRIME MINISTER RESIGNS Imanghali Tasmaghambetov announced his resignation at an emergency cabinet session on 11 June, and President Nursultan Nazarbaev accepted it later the same day, Reuters and ITAR-TASS reported. Tasmaghambetov said the outcome of the 19 May no-confidence vote in his government was falsified by deputies of Mazhilis (the lower chamber) whom he did not name, and that he has "no right to continue to cover the whole thing up,". Tasmaghambetov called for the no-confidence vote because of his dissatisfaction with the sweeping amendments made by the Mazhilis to the Land Code drafted by his government. Tasmaghambetov has served as prime minister since January 2002. (RFE/RL 11.vi.03) PRESIDENT WARNS WESTERN OIL COMPANIES AGAINST KASHAGAN DELAY Nursultan Nazarbaev has warned the six Western oil companies that comprise the consortium formed to develop the gigantic Kashagan offshore Caspian oil field that they could face financial penalties if commercial extraction of oil from that field is delayed for two years, the "Financial Times" reported on 9 June. Nazarbaev wants commercial production to begin in 2005, but the consortium believes that in light of the technical difficulties involved in drilling in shallow waters, 2006 or 2007 is a more realistic date. The consortium has invested some $2 billion in Kashagan, which contains some 9 billion barrels of recoverable reserves. (RFE/RL 10.vi.03) LATVIA SOFTWARE PIRACY RATE DOWN 1% AT 58% Latvia's software piracy rate dropped just 1% over the last year to 58%, leaving it the most pirate-ridden nation of the Baltic states, according to the annual study by Business Software Alliance BSA, the software writer copyright protection body. The software piracy rate in Lithuania declined from 58% at the end of 2001 to 53% in late 2002. Estonia's software piracy rate remained unchanged during 2002, and stood at the same level as in Lithuania at the end of the year. According to the BSA study, Latvia has lost 8 million euros through software piracy in retail value alone, significantly more than the 4.6 million euros loss to Estonia and the 4.9 million euro loss to Lithuania. BSA Latvian committee board chairman Valdis Birkavs admitted to the Baltic News Service that, "considering the present software piracy level, Latvia is currently at the point where western countries were eight years ago". In western countries software piracy was above 50% in the early 90s, but to date the figure has dropped to an average of 35%. The situation in Lithuania is gradually improving, said Ervinas Leontjevas, president of BSA Lietuva, noting the public's increasingly negative attitude toward pirated software. Jolanta Pranckeviciene, a lawyer representing the BSA members, said that, "the biggest problem is the use of pirated software in municipalities and other public institutions". The piracy rate is also high among home users, she said. The BSA said the lowest piracy rates in eastern Europe were recorded in the Czech Republic (40%), Hungary and Slovenia (45% each). Russia and Ukraine continued to have the highest piracy levels last year, with 89% of all programs installed on computers being illegal copies. (NewsBase 11.vi.03) POLAND FINANCE MINISTER RESIGNS The contradictory rumors in the press over the last few days have proven true. Finance Minister Grzegorz Kolodko has resigned. "If what is necessary becomes impossible, I will be concerned only with what is possible, so I have decided to go back to my scientific work," Grzegorz Kolodko told a press conference on Wednesday after he resigned as Finance Minister. He announced his resignation after the Cabinet had not given its full support for his budget plans, which the media described as 'creative accounting.' Andrzej Raczko, deputy Finance Minister under Marek Belka, has been named as Kolodko's replacement, Prime Minister Miller stated at a conference at 7 p.m. Kolodko's resignation has come as no surprise, as it had been speculated that he would resign after the PM delegated the coordination of economic policy to Jerzy Hausner, the current Economic, Labor and Social Policy Minister. Friday will be another important day for Leszek Miller, as his minority government will be the subject of a vote of confidence in the Sejm. If the vote goes against the Cabinet, the ministers will have to step down and an accelerated parliamentary election will take place, probably in Autumn. (WBJ 12.vi.03) E.D.S. SIGNS 6.5 YEAR CONTRACT WITH TELEKOMUNIKACJA POLSKA The leading global services company EDS on Tuesday announced the signing of a six and a half year contract with Telekomunikacja Polska worth $22 million, the company announced in a press release. EDS will be responsible for implementation, system integration and data migration for TP's new billing infrastructure including maintenance of the overall solution. The agreement solidifies EDS' end-to-end solution expertise in the telecommunications market, and secures a market leader position in the increasingly competitive telecommunications market for Telekomunikacja Polska. EDS' solution is based on CSG Kenan/BP, a software that offers efficient industry-specific billing solutions and is deployed by many leading telecommunications companies world wide, including France Telecom. The new system will improve TP's competitive position and provide more flexibility to react to the changing conditions of the Polish telecommunications market. According to Bertrand Le Guern, Deputy CEO at TP, the decisive factors for choosing EDS were its strong local presence, proven delivery capabilities, and experience in the telecommunications market. With Poland currently involved in a radical structural change: the planned EU accession requires radical change in many areas, including the liberalisation of the telecommunications market. Demands on companies are increasing significantly in the wake of the deregulation of this market. Telekomunikacja Polska is the market leader in Poland and provides both mobile and fixed telecommunication services for a combined 16 million subscribers. (NewsBase 11.vi.03) POLES VOTE YES TO E.U. ACCESSION IN LANDSLIDE VOTING According to the preliminary data of the State Election Commission (PKW) based on 95% of the constituencies, 76.87% of those who attended the referendum voted in favour of EU accession, while turnout was 58.48% of all eligible voters. Hence, the referendum was valid, as it meets the requirement that at least 50% of voters participate. Full figures will be known today in the evening. It appears that the referendum’s success was entirely due to the recent passage of legislation allowing first, a two-day referendum, and secondly, the publication of turnout data after the first day of the referendum. Indeed, voter turnout was just 17.6% after the first day, but rose markedly over the next day, fulfilling expectations that pro-EU voters would be mobilised if turnout was low at the first day. (IntelliNews 09.vi.03) ROMANIA STATE OFFICIAL HINTS OF LARGE AND ILLEGAL CAPITAL OUTFLOWS LAST YEAR A silent agreement of state authorities allowed illegal forex outflows last year amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars, said Ioan Stan, the head of the parliamentary commission supervising the secret services. The statement was made after Stan met the head of SRI secret services, Radu Timofte, implying that the source of information was the SRI itself. The funds were transferred through formal payment for forged imports. Notably, the BoP confirms net outflows worth USD 776mn as "errors and omissions", against stable net inflows over the last decade. The trend continued this year, when USD 654mn apparently illegally left the country in the first four months. In response to Stan's statements, BNR governor Isarescu said that the forex outflows are not a problem. (IntelliNews 12.vi.03) E500m EUROBOND ISSUE TO BE LAUNCHED BY END OF JUN-03 Romania will launch a eurobond issue by the end of June to take advantage of the European Central Bank's recent decision to cut key interest rates, according to local officials. "The ECB's rate cuts will help us, and this is why the ministry has delayed in setting a deadline for the launch," said Enache Jiru, Treasury State Secretary. He also said the seven-year bond issue would bear an interest of no more than 6%. The eurobond issue is worth 500 million euros, despite a previous statement made by Central Bank Governor Mugur Isarescu. He believed that the the Finance Ministry could raise more than that. Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Citigroup and UBS Warburg are Romania's eurobond issue managers. (NewsBase 11.vi.03) RUSSIA DEFENSE MINISTRY MURDER TO STALL KREMLIN'S PLANS Last week's murder of a top defense industry executive delegated by the Kremlin to merge rival companies into a giant air defense concern will stall the formation of the multimillion-dollar conglomerate, an industry source told Interfax on Monday. The murder of Igor Klimov, acting general director of the nascent Almaz-Antei Concern, made the front page of half a dozen newspapers, highlighting the high stakes and crime-related risks of the defense trade. Klimov was shot dead outside his home in Moscow on Friday, some three weeks before a shareholders meeting where he was widely expected to be confirmed as director. "This killing, without a doubt, will wreak havoc on ... the shareholders meeting planned for late June and, ultimately, will significantly alter the formation of the holding's management structures," the source, who was not identified, told Interfax. Klimov became director of Almaz-Antei in February with a Kremlin brief to streamline the design and production of the country's best-selling air defense systems. However, various enterprises being merged into the concern resisted the plan and battled for influence. Before coming to the concern as a deputy director in August 2002, Klimov briefly served as an aide to deputy Kremlin chief of staff Viktor Ivanov whom President Vladimir Putin appointed chairman of Almaz-Antei's board of directors. Hours after Klimov's murder, a top official at one of Almaz-Antei's subsidiaries was also gunned down and killed. Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov said Sunday evening that investigators are looking at all possible motives for Klimov's murder and considering "thousands of versions," but it was too early to give details. (The Moscow Times 11.vi.03) MOSCOW BUSINESS PUNDITS TOP SURVEY OF BROKERAGES When it comes to oil and chemicals on Europe's emerging markets, Russian brokerages rule the roost. As well as being voted Russia's best analyst overall in this year's Thomson Financial Extel survey, Paul Collison of UBS also topped its emerging markets ranking for oil and chemicals. Second and third places went to Adam Landes of Renaissance Capital and Stephen O'Sullivan of United Financial Group, respectively. The survey, considered the second-most important in the industry after Institutional Investor magazine's, includes Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Greece, South Africa, Turkey, Israel and Russia in its "emerging Europe" sector. UBS's Moscow office was voted best Russian brokerage, followed by United Financial Group and Renaissance Capital. "I suspect that the ability of UBS to leverage their global brand is probably the critical defining factor between them and someone like UFG," survey organizer Steve Kelly said. Christopher Granville of UFG and Peter Boone of UBS were voted second- and third-best analysts in Russia, respectively. This is only the third year that the emerging market category has been included in the survey since Thomson Financial took it over in 1999. Previously it was a Financial Times company. (The Moscow Times 11.vi.03) FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS RUSSIAN CONTRACTS IN IRAQ WILL BE HONORED Foreign Minister Ivanov on 9 June told a meeting in Moscow of 60 managers of 40 Russian companies that prior to the passage of UN Resolution 1483 in May, Russia received assurances from the United States that the country's business interests in Iraq would be protected, strana.ru reported. Ivanov said Russia is currently "conducting an active dialogue with all parties to the process and hopes for the participation of Russian companies in the postwar reconstruction in Iraq." Russia has "ensured that none of the financed Russian contracts [in Iraq] will be annulled," Ivanov said. "At worst, some of them will be frozen pending discussion with the internationally recognized government of Iraq after its creation." He noted that the United States agreed to incorporate into UN Resolution 1483 a provision welcoming the Paris Club of creditor countries to help resolve the issue of Iraqi debts. (RFE/RL 10.vi.03) DERIPASKA WINS CONTROL OF TVS Aluminum tycoon Oleg Deripaska has effectively won control of TVS, "The Moscow Times" reported on 9 June. Igor Linshits and Oleg Kiselev, who were previously allied with Unified Energy Systems head Anatolii Chubais, announced on 6 June that they will sell their 45 percent stake in TVS to a group of shareholders headed by Deripaska. Commenting on the developments, "Kukly" creator Viktor Shenderovich told "Nezavisimaya gazeta" that TVS employees "are still sitting without their wages, and the workers' collective for technical services is already partially on strike." He continued, "If, in the near term, the backlog of unpaid wages is paid and real work is maintained, then we will stay at the station and work." (RFE/RL 10.vi.03) DOUBLE MURDER IN RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY A Kremlin-connected executive in charge of one of the country's biggest defense concerns was shot dead Friday and a top official at one of the company's subsidiaries was killed the same way hours later, a double murder that has sent the defense industry reeling. Igor Klimov, acting general director of the Almaz-Antei Concern and a former aide in the presidential administration, died from bullet wounds outside his Moscow apartment building on Friday morning, in at least the fifth high-profile murder in the capital in the past two months. Klimov had been delegated by the Kremlin to streamline the development and production of Russia's best-selling air defense systems by merging rival enterprises into an industrial behemoth expected to have annual combined sales in the hundreds of millions of dollars. On Sunday, Moscow region police said that Sergei Shchitko, commercial director at Almaz-Antei's subsidiary RATEP, was killed by three gunshots to the head shortly before midnight Friday, Interfax reported. The shooting took place when Shchitko was sitting in his car outside a cafe in Serpukhov, the southern Moscow suburb where RATEP is located. Officials at the Prosecutor General's Office, which has taken over the Klimov investigation, said Friday afternoon that they were looking into his professional activities for clues but could not rule out other leads, such as personal conflicts. It was not clear Sunday whether the office would also oversee the probe into Shchitko's death. Klimov, who was 41 or 42, left his apartment building on Krymsky Val shortly before 9 a.m. and was walking toward his chauffeur-driven car when a young man brandishing a gun in a plastic bag approached him and demanded that Klimov hand over his briefcase, press reports cited detectives as saying. Instead of succumbing, Klimov tried to fight off the assailant. The tussle was recorded by a surveillance camera on a nearby building, but the quality of the image was poor, Kommersant reported Saturday. By all accounts, Klimov managed to wrestle the pistol away from his attacker, but did not shoot at the man. There were conflicting reports on the number of bullets that hit Klimov's chest -- three of five or one of four -- and on the moment the first shot was fired, before the scuffle or during. Investigators told Kommersant that the weapon used in the killing -- a revolver with a silencer -- was not typical for contract hits, which tend to involve more high-tech firearms. Other reports suggested that the attack may have been an attempt either to rob Klimov or to simulate a robbery, since neither his briefcase nor several thousand dollars that he reportedly had in his jacket pocket had been taken. The assailant, identified as a fair-haired young man in gray camouflage, fled through a neighboring courtyard toward Ulitsa Bolshaya Yakimanka. A police dog lost his trail in the area, suggesting that he may have escaped in a getaway car, Gazeta.ru said. (The Moscow Times 09.vi.03) TRANSNEFT TO BORROW $900 MILLION FROM SBERBANK State-owned oil-pipeline monopoly Transneft signed a letter of intent on 3 June to borrow up to $900 million from Sberbank, also state-owned, to finance future projects, ABN reported the same day. According to a 3 June Transneft press release, the first 10 billion rubles ($327 million) will arrive later this month to fund the expansion of the Baltic Pipeline System (BTS). Transneft estimates that upping the BTS's capacity from 12 million tons annually (240,000 barrels per day) to 42 million tons (840,000 barrels per day) will cost $1.2 billion-1.3 billion, "Vedomosti" reported on 4 June. Petroleum Argus analyst Mikhail Perfilov warned in "Kommersant" on 4 June that the project could prove to be overly ambitious when measured against current transportation resources on the Baltic and demand for Russian oil in Europe. Inspired by high oil prices, Russian producers have been clamoring for added export capacity. (RFE/RL 05.vi.03) TNK MINORITY SHAREHOLDERS FREEZE $380 MILLION IN ASSETS Minority shareholders in Tyumen Oil Company (TNK) have obtained an order from a court in the British Virgin Islands freezing $380 million of the oil major's assets, "The Moscow Times" reported on 3 June. The suit, by British Virgin Islands-based Astian Group and Seychelles-based Indian Ocean Petroleum Services, alleges that TNK used transfer-pricing schemes to cut minority shareholders out of their fair share of the company's profits. TNK Vice President Dmitrii Ivanov told "Vedomosti" of 3 June that the suits are "a typical example of greenmail, and our lawyers will prove this in court." A 4 June report in "Nefte Compass" linked the two plaintiffs to U.S. investor Kenneth Dart, noting that they have filed similar suits against other Russian oil companies in the past, albeit without success. With TNK currently involved in a multibillion-dollar joint venture with U.K.-U.S. BP, the lawsuit and asset seizure generate inopportune negative publicity. Lawyers for TNK will initiate proceedings on 9 June to have the order lifted, the "Financial Times" reported the same day. Russian companies have consistently claimed that transfer pricing -- whereby subsidiaries of a single company sell goods to each other at reduced prices in order to minimize taxable profit -- is legal under Russian law. (RFE/RL 05.vi.03) SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION HAS ANNOUNCED MACROECONOMIC SUPPORT WORTH EUR 65mn The Deputy Head of the EC delegation to Belgrade Jan Willem Blankert said Serbia and Montenegro would receive macroeconomic support totalling EUR 65mn after previously defined conditions are met. The aid package will be allocated 90% to Serbia and 10% to Montenegro. It is part of a EUR 130mn package for stabilising the Serbian and Montenegrin economies. The Serbia and Montenegro authorities have recently appealed to the European Commission to reallocate funds to Belgrade and Podgorica that will be left over after the "first wave" of Central European countries join the EU in the beginning of 2004. Over EUR 300mn each year is committed as a pre-accession aid to more than 10 countries from Central and Eastern Europe. Due to insufficient capacity and administrative problems, authorities in those countries cannot entirely make use of those funds, and they return them to the donor organisations as a result. (IntelliNews 12.vi.03) SLOVAKIA SLOVAKIA EYED AS INVESTMENT TARGET BY 3 U.S. INVESTORS Slovakia is being considered as a new investment target by at least three US-based companies, which are expected to invest in the eastern part of the country, according to Juraj Augustin, chief supervisor of the Economic Development Centre (EDC). The EDC, together with US-steel maker US Steel Kosice, had organised an international investment conference for representatives of about 70 US companies, trying to highlight Slovakia’s attractiveness for new foreign investors. Augustin refused to specify the names of the companies, but said they are expected to decide on the issue "in the near future". Slovakia, especially its eastern part, is being valued for its attractive labour force and labour costs, which are remarkably lower than in other neighbouring economies. (IntelliNews 12.vi.03) UKRAINE UKRAINE AND U.S.A. SIGN DEAL ON TECHNICAL AID TO PREVENT MONEY LAUNDERING Finance Minister Mykola Azarov and Nancy Lee, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Eurasia and Latin America in the Department of the Treasury, signed an agreement on US technical aid to be provided to the State Department for Financial Monitoring of Ukraine. According to Lee, a US advisor who has worked on a similar project in Russia, will assist in the functioning of the Ukraine’s financial watchdog. She added that employees of Ukraine’s state department will study methods of fighting money laundering in the USA, using US informational technology. The law on preventing the legalization of illegal income came into force on June 10. The day after, Serhiy Hurzhiy, head of the State Department of Financial Monitoring, said that the testing of the system, defining suspicious banking operations, which was conducted starting June 1, was successful, and that the department is ready for work. (IntelliNews 12.vi.03) INFORMATION PROVIDERS - For either a free trial, or for further information on the services of our Information Providers, please contact: NEWSBASE NewsBase is a leading provider of business and economic news and intelligence from Russia, Central Europe and the FSU. Daily bulletins and industry specific weekly reports backed by an archive containing over 10 million words combine to provide a comprehensive service to a global blue chip client base. Contact: Jon Laurijssen T: +44 (0)131 478 8537 F: +44 (0)131 478 7001 E: [email protected] W: www.newsbase.com, www.newsbaseworldmonitoring.com NEW WORLD PUBLISHING New World Publishing is a primary source of business-related information for Central Europe, through its publications the Prague, Budapest and Warsaw Business Journals. Contact: Mark Child T: +420 2 4608 6524 F: +420 2 4608 6501 E: [email protected] W: www.ceebiz.com, www.pbj.cz, www.wbj.pl, www.bbj.hu THE MOSCOW TIMES The Moscow Times offers readers an independent and precise view of the political, economic and business life of Russia. Contact: Andrew Boag T: +7 095 232 3200 F: +7 095 232 1761 E: [email protected] W: www.themoscowtimes.com INTERNET SECURITIES, INC. (IntelliNews articles) Internet Securities, established in 1994, is the pioneering provider of electronically delivered emerging markets business information. Contact: Ludek Macha T: +420 2 2421 9055 F: +420 2 2421 9060 E: [email protected] W: www.securities.com RADIO FREE EUROPE / RADIO LIBERTY Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a private, international communications service to Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe; the Caucasus; and Central and Southwestern Asia funded by the U.S. Congress through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. Contact: Peter Baumgartner T: +420 (0)2 2112 2039 F: +420 (0)2 2112 2012 E: [email protected] W: www.rferl.org TRANSITIONS ONLINE (TOL) TOL is a nonprofit Internet magazine and media development organization that produces timely, original news and analysis, covering all 28 countries in the post-communist region through its network of local journalists and editors. Contact: Eugen Babau-Iladi T: +420 (0)2 2278 0805 F: +420 (0)2 2278 0804 E: [email protected] W: www.tol.cz TEMPLETON THORP T +44 (0)20 7520 9380 F +44 (0)20 7504 8180 E [email protected] W www.templetonthorp.com |
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