Page 8 - bne_newspaper_February_08_2019

The Regions This Week
February 8, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Southeast Europe
Hitting the local elections campaign trail,
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan touted the quadrillions of Turkish lira invested around the country by successive governments run by his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the past 16 years — but Erdogan gave the numbers in old lira, with no mention of the decision made under him in 2005 to knock
six zeros off the currency.
One of Romania’s largest spice factories burned down. There are now plans to rebuild the Solina spice factory in Alba Iulia, and resume operations as soon as possible.
The Kosovan parliament endorsed the 2019 budget in the second reading, ending the halt in state spending and thus avoiding a crisis in the country. The government adopted the budget in October, but the parliament failed to vote it in due to the lack of support from opposition parties. Fi- nally, the opposition Social Democrat Party (PSD) decided to vote for the bill.
The Socialist Party (PSRM) of Moldova’s pro- Russian President Igor Dodon might form a fragile majority in parliament after the February 24 elections, according to a poll conducted by the International Republican Institute (IRI). However, the complex electoral process, under which half of the lawmakers are elected through a major- ity vote and the other half through a proportional vote, might result in surprises.
Fintel Energija plans to start the construction of Europe's largest onshore wind farm in Serbia in 2019. Built by the Serbian subsidiary of Italy's Fintel Energia Group, Maestrale Ring wind farm will have an installed capacity of 572 MW and will be located in the northern Serbian region
of Vojvodina.
Bulgaria extended the deadline for the Sofia airport concession again. This is the fifth time Bulgaria has extended the deadline to place offers after calling the tender for the 35-year concession of Sofia International Airport in July 2018 despite objections from the opposition.
Slovenia's biggest telecom operator, state-owned Telekom Slovenije, sold Bosnia’s Blicnet to Tel- ekomunikacije Republike Srpske. The sale of Blic- net is in accordance with Telekom Slovenije Group’s strategic business plan for the 2018-2022 period.
Romania is preparing to launch a new Eurobond
once January budget execution figures are pub- lished, Darius Valcov, an advisor to prime min- ister Viorica Dancila, announced. The Eurobond announcement comes amid a dispute between the government and local banks, with the former claiming excessive yields asked for in the issues launched on the local market.
Albania's central bank maintained its key inter- est rate unchanged at 1%. The bank said the new economic and monetary information suggests that the Albanian economy continues on a positive development trend.
The European Energy Exchange (EEX) expects to expand power trading to Bulgaria, Serbia and Slovenia this year, Reuters reported quoting chief executive Peter Reitz. Reitz said that the EEX will cover 20 power trading zones in Europe after add- ing the three countries.
Turkey’s gaming exports were worth more than $1bn in 2018, Anadolu Agency reported the brand and marketing communication manager of the Gaming Istanbul 2019 (GIST 2019) expo as saying. Some 600 enterprises work on game development in the country.