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The Regions This Week
May 18, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 7
Southeast Europe
The outgoing Slovenian government will start work on the expansion of the Koper-Divaca railway immediately, after the project was endorsed in a second referendum. Ljubljana wants to get started on the project before the June 3 parliamentary elections.
The Albanian opposition is pushing for the resignation of Interior Minister Fatmir Xhafaj. They claim Xhafaj’s brother, who was convicted
of drug trafficking in Italy 15 years ago, is still involved in the illicit trade and accuse the minister of attempting to cover it up.
Turkish solar power production rose by 175% to 2.8mn megawatt-hours in 2017 compared to the previous year, according to data from the Energy Market Regulatory Authority. Solar production became Turkey’s sixth biggest electricity resource.
Romanian rail freight company CFR Marfa moved closer to insolvency. The company paid only half of the wages to its 7,000 employees on May 15 after the railway infrastructure company CFR froze its accounts in an attempt to recover part of the claims estimated at well above €100mn.
Bulgaria’s GDP expressed in constant prices increased by 3.5% y/y in Q1, the same as in
Q4 2017, the statistics office reported in a flash estimate. In 2016 and 2017 Bulgaria’s GDP increased by a real 3.4% and 3.6%, respectively.
German meat giant Toennies Lebensmitte will start building its first pig farm in Serbia in spring 2019, Minister of Agriculture Branislav Nedimovic announced. In 2016, Toennies announced investments in meat production in Serbia totalling up to €300mn within five years, but construction was delayed as it only obtained the right to lease state agricultural land in November.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to the UK ended on a discordant note when he
insisted that all the journalists incarcerated in Turkey’s jails were terrorist criminals. Erdogan essentially ignored a warning from British Prime Minister Theresa May not to lose sight of democratic values.
UK-based metal mining company Mineco opened its lead mine in Bosnia & Herzegovina. The mine in the municipality of Olovo is the first new metal mine to be opened in the country for 30 years, and Bosnia’s only underground mine.
Chinese investor Karl Soong and local entrepreneur Mladen Nincevic, the owners
of Green Tech Group, are reportedly planning to build a factory for electric cars and scooters in Croatia. The factory will supply the markets of Central and Eastern Europe.
Kosovo’s biggest mining and metallurgical complex, Trepca, will soon be activated, Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj announced. The move would be controversial as Serbia also claims ownership of Trepca.
Montenegro's troubled flag carrier Montenegro Airlines remained the biggest tax debtor in
the Adriatic state, data from the country’s tax administration showed. The airline has been struggling to repay its debts for years.
Works on Moldova’s Ungheni-Chisinau pipeline have been delayed for another three months until September. When completed the pipeline will bring Romanian natural gas to Moldova’s main industrialised area.
Niro Investment Group plans to invest €60mn in hotels and tourism in Romania over the next four years. The privately owned group will focus on reopening the Grand Hotel du Boulevard in Bucharest, which was built back in 1867.