The smart Albanians who came to the US are now flipping burgers in the local coney islands and are well into the paperwork jungle to stay here permanently and bring their relatives here. Then, they can all contribute to organizations whose goal is the "Greater Albania". The idiot ones have already left after being promised that nice apartment vacated by fleeing Serbs and great job security in the flourishing drug trade...you throw that stolen Mercedes in the mix and I won't be surprised if most of them left.
Even with all the sanctions and everything else the Serbs have suffered...most of the businessmen still prefer doing business there than the Albanians Nato "liberated".
The Pariah State of Serbia
Is Becoming Belle of Balkans
By ROBERT BLOCK
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- A year after NATO launched its 11-week air war, Serbia again is crawling with reconnaissance patrols from Western Europe and the U.S., as well as from Russia, Israel and China. Only this time, the advance troops are wearing business suits, and the intervention they are preparing for isn't military, but commercial.
While Western nations have been foundering in their efforts to channel investment into Kosovo to help stabilize the breakaway Yugoslav province, foreign businessmen quietly are courting the region's pariah state, Serbia, in spite of international sanctions, Western hostility and political insecurity. Some are positioning themselves for a quick entry into Serbia when, or if, the economic embargoes are lifted and stability returns, while others skirt the poorly enforced sanctions laws to protect existing relationships or build new ones at bargain prices.
Companies from China and Russia, Belgrade's closest allies, and businessmen from countries not bound by U.S. and Western European restrictions on investment, such as Israel, see the embargo as a chance to get a jump on Western rivals and secure a toehold in what many analysts consider the Balkans' most promising market. Interests range from rebuilding flattened oil refineries to making a grab for Serbia's largest brewery.
Geographical Attraction
The attraction is more than just beer and gasoline. Serbia's geographical position, linking the Bosporus in Turkey to Western Europe, makes doing business here appealing to many foreign firms, says Neil Richardson, a business consultant specializing in the Balkans, and Serbia is viewed as a crucial platform for any type of redevelopment project in the Balkans. "The potential for projects in the region is huge," Mr. Richardson says.
No big deals are known to have been clinched yet, but businessmen keep coming to show their goodwill or to haggle, giving the regime of Slobodan Milosevic a badly needed psychological boost as it fights to break out of its international isolation. "We have contacts every day," boasts Zivko Soklovacki, the director of Serbia's state-controlled oil concern Nafta Industrija Serbia, or NIS. Mr. Soklovacki is loath to divulge details, saying: "It's not an issue we want to discuss. Our experience tell us that whenever Washington hears that someone is trying to make business arrangements with Serbia they press those companies to cancel the deals."
Indeed, the Clinton administration is bent on isolating Belgrade economically to try to force President Milosevic from power. Last year, under the Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, Washington froze the assets of hundreds of Serbian firms linked to the regime and banned all American businesses and citizens from making any transactions with them. Now Washington is pressing the European Union to tighten its own legislation and implement restrictions it imposed against Serbia last year.
Corporate Visitors
Notwithstanding, the list of companies visiting Belgrade reads like a international corporate Who's Who, including U.S. engineering concern Foster Wheeler Corp. of Clinton, N.J., Swedish telecommunications powerhouse Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson, Greece's Hellenic Telecommunications Organization, or OTE, Russian oil concern OAO Lukoil and South Korea's Daewoo Corp.
Foster Wheeler built oil facilities in the former Yugoslavia before the war and has supplied technology services to the state oil company. After the war, according to government officials, representatives of Foster Wheeler visited Belgrade to express an interest in rebuilding Serbia's largest refinery at Pancevo, a favorite target of bombers from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The officials say Foster Wheeler told refinery managers it was prohibited from making any deals now, but that it was ready to act once sanctions were lifted. The company neither confirms nor denies this account, saying only that it doesn't break the law.
One U.S. government official says that while "we cannot regulate speech" and stop companies from talking to Belgrade, the Clinton administration is "deeply concerned" by such contacts. Several investigations into possible sanctions-busting activities by U.S. firms or individuals are under way, according to the official. But unless a deal is signed or business is transacted, there is little Washington can do beyond cajoling U.S. companies to stay away from Serbia.
Many firms make no secret of their distaste for the sanctions. Last month, a group of international companies advising a joint U.S.-EU mini-Marshall Plan for the Balkans, wrote to U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, calling the embargo counterproductive and urging her to lift it.
Businessmen Scouting Deals
Sanctions "support crime and corruption in the region as a whole since imports and exports are possible only through cooperation with mafias,' members of the group, the Business Advisory Council to the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative, wrote to Ms. Albright. "In Serbia itself, the black-market economy strengthens the existing power structures and enables the ruling elite to monopolize wealth, influence and power."
Among the companies listed at the bottom of the letter were Raytheon Systems Co., a unit of Lexington, Mass., defense contractor Raytheon Co.; and Bechtel International Inc., an arm of construction and engineering giant Bechtel Group Inc. of San Francisco. Bechtel and Raytheon say they didn't sign the letter, and that their names were included only to reflect their membership on the council. However, spokesmen for both companies say their representatives on the advisory council agreed to the letter being drafted, and that their companies didn't oppose its message in principle. Both companies added that they have no specific business interests in Serbia right now.
Of all the businessmen visiting Belgrade, the most overtly interested in expanding their ties are those from Israel and Greece. In December, a 15-member Israeli trade delegation visited Belgrade at the invitation of the Yugoslav Chamber of Commerce. Included were such prominent engineering firms as Baran Group and Ludan Engineering Ltd. Since then, scores of Israeli businessmen have descended on Serbia, scouting deals in food processing, real estate, construction, insurance, banking and hotels.
Israeli businessmen aren't subject to legislation prohibiting deals with Serbs. Businessmen from Greece are, but Athens seems uninterested in enforcing the ban. Some Greek businessmen boast that if necessary, they can skirt the sanctions through offshore front companies.
Greece, a NATO member, was a reluctant warrior during last year's Balkan conflict, thanks to its historical sympathy for Serbia. Both are predominantly Eastern Orthodox Christian nations at odds for centuries with their Muslim neighbors. Greece also has been a major investor and business partner in Serbia.
The most important Greek investment here has been in telecommunications. Three years ago, OTE, the Greek telecommunications company, bought 20% of Telekom Serbija, the national telephone company, for 675 million German marks ($335.37 billion). After the war, OTE took a $17 million charge against 1999 earnings for damage and lost revenue at its Serbian operations, but it said the deal was still profitable. Last month, OTE Chairman Rapanos Vassilios visited Belgrade to affirm that OTE remained committed to Telekom Serbija, not only because of profits, but also to aid Yugoslavia's reconstruction.
Most companies aren't rushing into any contracts, because of the high risk of doing business with Mr. Milosevic. Serbia, cut off from international lending institutions, is virtually broke and can't provide financial guarantees for deals. A bigger worry is the threat of anarchy. Serbs resent the West for last year's bombing campaign but seethe at the regime for a decade of disastrous policies and lost wars, creating a volatile political situation.
Special Friendship With Beijing
Desperate for cash, the embattled Milosevic regime has turned to China and Russia. A special friendship between Belgrade and Beijing was forged in fire last year when NATO warplanes bombed China's embassy in Belgrade. NATO apologized for the bombing, which it said was a mistake. The incident opened a flood of pro-Chinese sentiment here and drew promises of hundreds of millions of dollars of aid from Beijing. But that aid was partially linked to awarding business deals to Chinese companies.
Last December, Yugoslavia signed a letter of intent with China's Zhongxing Telecom, or ZTE, to provide a complete digital mobile-telephone system to help Yugoslavia restore its war-damaged telecommunications network. The value of the deal was estimated at $225 million, partly covered by credits from the Chinese government.
However, the deal has stalled. The problem, according to Lin An, ZTE's general manager in Belgrade, is that Mobtel BK-PTT, Serbia's main cellular-service provider, prefers to do business with its old partner, Ericsson, which signed a $210 million contract to expand Yugoslavia's cell-phone network three years ago. The war and the imposition of EU financial sanctions have interrupted that deal. However, Mr. Lin claims Ericsson continues to supply Mobtel with equipment in violation of EU regulations.
Ericsson spokesman Lars Stalberg strongly denies his company is breaking EU sanctions, but acknowledges Ericsson has done maintenance work on Serbia's cellular network, as permitted under sanctions law. At the same time, Mr. Stalberg adds, Ericsson is prepared to defend its interests in Serbia. "We have no intention of giving up and leaving [Yugoslavia] to the Chinese," he says.
Oil Deals for Russia
Companies from Russia seek to press their advantage in cutting deals with Serbia, especially in the oil sector. According to employees of the Novi Sad oil refinery, Lukoil has been negotiating to buy and rebuild the Novi Sad plant that was leveled by NATO last year. Lukoil also is reportedly talking about investing in NIS. "We are looking at all possibilities in that market," a Lukoil spokesman in Moscow says.
The problem is that the oil-sector trade unions and opposition parties running the Novi Sad city government are against any deal with the Russians, fearing that Lukoil will import environmentally unfriendly technology, as well as prop up the regime.
"We are writing to every company interested in projects here -- including not just Lukoil, but French, Hungarian and Austrian companies -- telling them that any deal made with this regime is illegitimate and will be considered illegitimate in the future," says Aleksander Ivkovac, a Novi Sad city government spokesman. "I don't think it's a risk worth taking." |
