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The Regions This Week
May 17, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Southeast Europe
Local producers have not benefitted from Kosovo’s imposition of 100% tariffs on goods imported from Serbia and Bosnia, as — despite optimistic forecasts from the authorities —
there was no corresponding increase in local production, said the GAP Institute for Advanced Studies, a local think tank. The biggest beneficiaries were Slovenia, Israel and Turkey, whose exports to Kosovo increased significantly.
Turkey’s new $12bn mega airport, Istanbul Airport, is using some of the most cutting-edge technology available, Forbes magazine reported. Officials want the flight hub to become the world’s busiest within a few years. Once fully completed (in 2027 if all goes to plan) at its location north of Istanbul by the Black Sea, it will have the capacity to handle 200mn passengers a year.
The monetary board of Romania’s central bank kept monetary policy unchanged, with the monetary rate at 2.5% per year. The decision
is in line with anticipations. However, some analysts said the robust Q1 GDP growth can be interpreted as an argument for rate hikes to tackle inflationary pressures.
The ruling coalition's candidate Stevo Pendarovski was sworn in as the new president of North Macedonia after he won the second round
of the presidential election, defeating the
main opposition candidate. Pendarovski said after the swearing-in ceremony in the parliament that he will serve all citizens regardless of their political and ethnic background and will aim to unite the deeply divided society.
The commercial court at Pazin decided to start bankruptcy proceedings at Croatia’s Uljanik Shipyard. Uljanik, which owns the Uljanik shipyard in Pula and the 3. Maj shipyard in Rijeka, is in severe financial difficulties, and the government declined to endorse a proposed restructuring plan.
Moldova’s President Igor Dodon said he will dissolve the parliament unless lawmakers elect a speaker. The country’s new parliament has been summoned only once since the general election on February 24. The parliament is largely split between three main forces, none of which have so far managed to find common ground.
Thousands of Albanian opposition supporters staged another protest against the Socialist government of Prime Minister Edi Rama, demanding a snap election. For the second time in three days the protest erupted into violence, with protesters throwing smoke bombs and Molotov cocktails at the police.
Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia signed a protocol determining the border point between the three countries, moving a step further towards a final border demarcation agreement. The three countries were part of former Yugoslavia and still have not defined all border demarcations clearly.
Rumen Porozhanov resigned as Bulgaria’s agri- culture minister upon the request of Prime Minis- ter Boyko Borissov over his alleged involvement in misuse of EU funds allocated for the construction of guest houses. Local media reports suggest that rather than building guest houses, recipients of the money used it to build luxury homes.
US ATM producer National Cash Register (NCR) launched construction of a $90mn campus in Serbia, the government in Belgrade said. Serbia signed a public-private partnership agreement with NCR in 2017.
Globalworth, the biggest owner of office space in Romania, announced the launch of the Global Logistics brand, which will bring together all its properties in the logistics segment. The group also announced a new logistics project in Chitila (9km northwest of Bucharest), which will require a €35.5mn investment.