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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Lacelle who wrote (4229)	4/17/1999 12:17:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 17770

This war is going to be so inflationary...Europe in particular.. Albania Seeks $820 Million in Aid to Care for Growing Number of Refugees Albania Seeks $820 Mln in Aid for Caring for Refugees (Repeat) (Repeats to add dropped letter in 3rd paragraph.) London, April 17 (Bloomberg) -- Albania, which had recently begun to recover from the 1997 collapse of investment frauds and civil conflict, is facing a setback as hundreds of thousands of refugees flood across its borders from Yugoslavia. Albania estimates it needs $220 million in budget assistance and $600 million in humanitarian aid in the next three to four months to deal with the surge of refugees. About 300,000 refugees are officially registered in Albania and that could increase to 500,000 in the next few days, said Agim Fagu, Albanian ambassador to the United Kingdom and Ireland. The requests for aid are ''very modest,'' said Ermelinda Meksi, Minister of Economy and Trade. ''The generosity of the Albanian people is not enough.'' The Kosovo crisis probably dashed Albania's hopes of achieving 10 percent economic growth this year. Companies are reducing their operations in Albania and putting off pledges of new investment on concern over the political risk. The refugees will increase the population by as much as 15 percent, and most of the refugees are elderly, children or mothers. ''It is impossible for us to cope,'' Fagu said. ''We are fighting with everything we have.'' Aid Pledged The World Bank has pledged $30 million to help the refugees while the European Union has promised $100 million for countries caring for refugees. Albania's other requests of aid have not yet been answered. Until the civil war in Kosovo, Albania had been making a notable comeback from the 1997 rioting and looting which spread throughout the country when a number of investment pyramid schemes collapsed, wiping out the savings of millions of Albanians. Albania reported 8 percent growth of gross domestic product in 1998, compared with a drop of 7 percent in 1997. The annual inflation rate in 1998 totaled 8.7 percent compared with 42.1 percent in 1997. Foreign direct investment rose to about $100 million, from $42 million in 1997. Now, the government is struggling to meet the basic needs of the refugees, hurting prospects for further growth. ''The impact of Kosovo is the great strain on our limited resources and is a disincentive to investment,'' Meksi said. ''Imports are falling and there are delays at ports and airports.'' The country may be forced to put off plans to sell large state- owned companies to private investors. ''We don't want to devalue our assets,'' Meski said. Planned Sales Companies slated for sale this year include Telekomi Shqiptar, the national fixed network telephone operator, Albanian Mobile Communications, the country's only mobile phone operator, Albpetrol, the state oil company, Albchrom, the state chrome mining company, and the National Commercial Bank, the second-largest state- owned bank. Meanwhile, for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development's investments in two Albanian hotels, the chaos actually has been a boon. The bank in 1994 made a loan of $12 million and took a 28 percent stake in the Hotel Rogner Europapark hotel in Tirana, the capital of Albania. In 1995, The bank made a loan of $10.7 million and an equity investment of about $900,000 in the Tirana International Hotel. Now those investments are paying off. ''Business is booming in Tirana,'' said Charles Frank, first vice president of the EBRD. ''There are lots of officials and people coordinating the aid efforts staying there.'' The EBRD also has invested in a bank that is a joint venture between an Albanian bank and Banca di Roma of Italy, and it has invested in a local Coca-Cola bottler, an energy utility, and some infrastructure projects. ©1999 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Terms of Service, Privacy Policy and Trademarks.