Bulgarian Minister of Agriculture and Foods Miroslav Naydenov. Photo by BGNES
Bulgaria and Greece should team up to offer strong competition in the area of agriculture against non-EU neighbors Macedonia and Turkey, argued Bulgarian Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov.
Saturday Naydenov visited Greek livestock breeding exhibition Zootechnia in Thessaloniki.
“There is a competition pressure in agriculture on the part of Turkey and Macedonia, who are not part of the EU and their agriculture sectors can enjoy privileges not available to agriculture producers in the EU,” said the Bulgarian minister in an interview for ANA-MPA.
“We are neighbors with Greece and our ambition is to be able to increase mutual exchange,” stressed Naydenov.
The Bulgarian Agriculture Minister noted that Greek agriculture companies already have the established practice of using Bulgarian raw products, and suggested that this can be boosted.
He also called for an increased trade exchange of produce, with more Bulgarian grain products to be imported in Greece, and more Greek fruit and vegetables to be imported in Bulgaria.
In particular, Naydenov stressed that Bulgaria has still work to do in the absorption of EU subsidies in agriculture to achieve the full potential of the sector.
Foreign Residential Property: Turkey or Montenegro?
09 February 05:04 PM
These days more and more investors tend to investors in foreign residential property. Wealthy people purchase apartments, villas and townhouses in Spain , Great Britain, Switzerland etc.
At the same time, those people who cannot afford to buy expensive homes, strive to invest in the residential property of other countries. Turkey and Montenegro are especially popular with them.
Turkey and Montenegro
Most foreign investors know little about those countries and their housing markets. The key fact is that both the countries are tourist centers with high-quality services and relatively low prices.
Montenegro has an outlet to the Adriatic sea, which is colder but much cleaner than the Mediterranean and Black seas. Montenegro offers tourists a wide range of leisure opportunities from sunbathing on the beach and swimming in the sea to skiing and snowboarding in the mountains. Beautiful nature, fresh air low prices and high-quality services make Montenegro a perfect place for vacation. Loyal legislation is another factor speaking in favor of investing in Montenegro .
However, there is a certain percent of uncertified residential property left after the disintegration of Yugoslavia.
As for Turkey, there are no such legal issues. Turkey can boast a well-developed and efficient cadastral system. The local legislation defends an individual’s right if he/she has a TAPU – the certificate of property rights. Moreover, it is impossible to purchase residential property in Turkey without the Turkish Ministry of Defense as there are special zones in Turkey where property sales contradict the country’s military doctrine.
It should be noted that most foreign investors buy Turkish property to make profits. The local housing market grows by 10% a year on average, which means you can make decent profits as the market is still undervalued.
On the other hand, the territory of Turkey is relatively big. So, it is necessary to examine closely the current situation in the local housing market of any region where you want to purchase residential property. The closer the area is to the borders with Syria, Iraq or Iran and the farther it is from the sea, the lower the housing prices in this area are.
Turkey, Antalya. An apartment – €70 000, 75 square meters — (€933 /m²). 100 meters to the sea.
Montenegro is another story. Its territory is relatively small. However, the transportation and tourist infrastructure is highly developed and is being improved.
However, there are problems with constructing new buildings in coastal areas. So, it is better to purchase ready-made housing units or those that are under construction.
Montenegro , Бар, Dobra Voda. A villa – €250 000. 170 square meters.
Expenses
When buying residential property in Montenegro , you will have to pay a 3% budget tax and an annual maintenance tax – form 0.08% to 0.8%. In turkey, you will have to pay a 4% tax plus 0.01% a year per maintenance.
Obviously, the cost of a certain housing unit depends on several factors, including the location, living space, infrastructure and others. A square meter of residential property in Montenegro and turkey starts from €500. However, the cost of most housing units available for sale is within the range of €1.500-€3.500 per square meter.
Experts recommend buying residential property in Montenegro if you want to lead a calm and slow-paced lifestyle. However, if you are planning to purchase foreign residential property for investment or commercial purposes, Turkey is a better option.
You are free to discuss this article here: forum for traders and investors
via Market Leader : News :: Foreign Residential Property: Turkey or Montenegro?.
A festival bringing together artists, activists, musicians and academicians from Kosovo and Turkey expanded communication between the two countries and fostered co-operation in various cultural fields.
Turkey and Kosovo have developed close political and economic ties. [AFP]Yet there is still room for socio-cultural relations between the two countries to grow, according to Ares Shporta, the organiser of the Contemporary Contours of Kosovo Festival, which was held in Istanbul from December 27th-29th.
Shporta told SETimes the most common cultural organisations from Turkey in Kosovo are theatre groups that perform in Turkish-speaking parts of Kosovo, especially Prizren, and events held during the month of Ramadan.
“Much more could be done,” Shporta said. “Co-operation at the bilateral level should not be limited to that part of Kosovo with a cultural heritage from [the Ottoman Empire].”
Shporta noted that organisations in Kosovo face financial difficulties.
“There is no [cultural] event in Kosovo that does not have financial concerns. Most of the events are largely supported by voluntary work,” he said.
Turkish financial support could help boost socio-cultural co-operation, Shporta added.
“It seems like there is a serious gap between Turkey’s socio-cultural representation in Kosovo, compared to Kosovo’s representation in Turkey, probably because Turkey’s cultural production is much richer and diversified,” Şadan Inan Rüma, an associate professor of international relations and Balkan politics at Istanbul Bilgi University, told SETimes.
Television and cinema are one area where Turkey is having an impact on Kosovo’s nascent industry.
“The cinematographic boom occurring in Turkey is in a way helping in the rejuvenation of Kosovar cinema,” Veton Nurkollar , the artistic director of Dokufest, one of the Balkan’s most successful documentary film festivals held annually in Prizren, told SETimes.
“The impact is felt in the way how it is worked in the cinema, be it Kosovar, Albanian, or cinema in other territories where Albanian is spoken,” Nurkollar said. “I see how the whole concept to create something similar [to that in Turkish cinema] is being adopted both in Kosovo and Albania.”
Nurkollar said Turkey has had the tendency to promote culture coming from Turkey to be consumed in Kosovo.
“I think there is space for improvement in the expansion of the range [of activities] and promotion of contemporary art, exchange of projects and festivals, [and the like],” he said.
Nurkollar added he would like to see more Turkish film producers coming to Kosovo to share their experiences and know-how with their Kosovar counterparts, and thus increase co-operation between the two countries in the field of cinematography.
Shporta also said he believes there many opportunities to extend co-operation in other areas such as contemporary art, photography, music production and disciplines such as sociology and media.
The festival hosted an exhibition called “Sui Generis” at the santralistanbul Energy Museum, where the works of 10 young Kosovar artists reflecting life in post-war Kosovo are on display through January 15th.
Six short films mainly focused on post-war Kosovo were also screened at Istanbul Modern’s cinema. Other events during the festival included live music performances by well-known groups and artists including a solo concert by Kosovo guitarist Petrit Çeku, a performance by Grupi Gazmor and Shpat Deda, and a jazz night with Kosovar groups Trio Love and Gipsy Groove.
Sociologists Shkelzen Maliqi and Sezgin Boynik held panel discussions on the effects of the Ottoman era on identity and culture in the Balkans and Kosovo. Meanwhile, representatives from the new media platform Kosovo 2.0 explained the situation regarding media in Kosovo and post-Yugoslavia countries to Turkish audiences.
Sislej Xhafa, one of Kosovo’s most celebrated contemporary artists based in New York, also shared his experience with the Turkish public. Xhafa has presented his work in other organisations in Istanbul in the past. “The Turkish people’s positive energy” brings him back to Turkey again and again, he told SETimes.
“The fact that we are here today sharing experience shows Turkey and Kosovo have very good socio-cultural ties,” Xhafa said.
This content was commissioned for SETimes.com.
via Turkey and Kosovo work to strengthen connections (SETimes.com).
VISOKO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — When Amra Babic walks down the streets of the central Bosnian town of Visoko wearing her Muslim headscarf, men sitting in outdoor cafes instantly rise from their chairs, fix their clothes and put out their cigarettes.
The respect is only natural: Babic is their new mayor.
The 43 year-old economist has blazed a trail in this war-scarred Balkan nation by becoming its first hijab-wearing mayor, and possibly the only one in Europe. Her victory comes as governments elsewhere in Europe debate laws to ban the Muslim veil, and Turkey, another predominantly Islamic country seeking EU membership, maintains a strict policy of keeping religious symbols out of public life.
For Babic, the electoral triumph is proof that observance of Muslim tradition is compatible with Western democratic values.
“It’s a victory of tolerance,” the wartime widow says. “We have sent a message out from Visoko. A message of tolerance, democracy and equality.”
She sees no contradiction in the influences that define her life.
“I am the East and I am the West,” she declares. “I am proud to be a Muslim and to be a European. I come from a country where religions and cultures live next to each other. All that together is my identity.”
For centuries, Bosnia has been a cultural and religious mix of Muslim Bosniaks, Christian Orthodox Serbs and Roman Catholic Croats who occasionally fought each but most of the time lived peacefully together. Then came the Balkans wars of the 1990s in which ethnic hatreds bottled up by Yugoslavia’s communist regime exploded as the federation disintegrated. Bosnia’s Muslim majority fell victim to the genocidal rampage of ethnic Serbs seeking to form a breakaway state.
As an economist and local politician, Babic has played an active role in Bosnia’s emergence from the ashes.
She was a bank auditor and served as the regional finance minister before running for mayor. Now Babic feels she is ready to run this town of 45,000 people, mostly Bosnian Muslims, for the next four years.
She wants to fix the infrastructure, partly ruined by the Bosnian 1992-95 war and partly by post-war poverty. And she plans to make Visoko attractive for investment, encouraging youth to start small businesses. It’s all part of her strategy to fight the town’s unemployment rate of over 25 percent.
“We are proud to have elected her,” says Muris Karavdic, 38, a local small business owner. “It doesn’t matter whether she covewrs her head or not. She is smart and knows finances.”
Babic sees her victory as breaking multiple barriers, from bigotry against women in a traditionally male-dominated society to stigmatization of the hijab that sprang up under the communist regime.
“Finally we have overcome our own prejudices,” she says. “The one about women in politics, then the one about hijab-wearing women — and even the one about hijab-wearing women in politics.”
Babic, of the center-right Party for Democratic Action, decided to wear her headscarf after her husband was killed fighting in the Bosnian Army, and views it as “a human right.” Religion and hard work helped her overcome his death, raise their three boys alone and pursue a career.
Babic says she is ready to work around the clock and prove people in Visoko made the right choice. This, she hopes, may clear the way for more women to follow her path.
By Bosnian law, at least 30 percent of the candidates in any election have to be women, but voters have been reluctant to give women a chance. Only five of the 185 mayors elected on October 7 are women.
Signs of the respect Babic commands in Visoko abound.
Election posters still up around town have been scrawled with vampire teeth, mustaches or spectacles; none of Babic’s posters bear such graffiti. Older hijab-wearing women stop in front of her pictures as if hypnotized by her determined blue eyes. Some are seen crying and caressing the image on the wall.
“They probably look at my picture and think of their lost opportunities,” Babic says. “They probably think: Go, girl! You do it if I couldn’t.”
via Bosnians elect their first hijab-wearing mayor » Knoxville News Sentinel.
This month’s focus: Bosnia and Herzegovina. Discover the country’s unique blend of cultures and religions, its vibrant spirit and its stunning and unspoiled natural scenery.
HOW WE CAN BENEFIT FROM THE COMING PRECIOUS METALS SURGE
Every cycle has a beginning and an end. It never fails. In the beginning they pander the little investor to encourage them to come back.
I will use the fine firm of Merrill Lynch as an example.
Their name used to be Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner and Bean. They were one of the top firms and they sought the “private Investor or PI” like Charles Schwab does today.
Then in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s they changed THEIR NAME TO Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner and Smith. The press loved it. I remember reading articles of praise that there are many more Smiths than Beans and that this was a smart public relations move to gather more PI business.
Being in command and a trail blazer for the security industry they decided to go public and cash in on their good fortune. They shorten their name to just Merrill Lynch. This was a game changer. Now every employee had a chance to buy into their company and if they timed it right could sell and leave wealthy. Long term employees suddenly found themselves very wealthy individuals. Long term horizons suddenly shifted to “How is our stock doing today?”
Our Economy started with long term growth prospects under Presidents Truman and Eisenhower. The GI Bill and the interstate Highway systems were game changers. President Eisenhower has been disparaged for not lowering our taxes. The top bracket was 92%
If one bought a stock and held onto it for six months then the “Government let you keep half the gain.”
Lowering taxes has had the same effect as brokerage firms going public. Long term expectations started drifting downward to weeks , then days. With high frequency trades long term can be defined into “nano seconds”.
We must make some adjustments to reward the serious investor
They like many other firms started diversifying by catering to wealthy individuals and institutions at the same time. The PI investor was back on the bottom rung. This was true for most of Wall Street.
Certain banks have now become immense in power under the “too big to fail” mantra. JP Morgan and the other commercials have been rigging the price of silver and gold on the commodity Comex exchange by the use of High Frequency Trades (HFT”S) derivatives and the use low interest rate Federal Reserve funds that were supposed to help financial institution liquefy.
The price of an ounce of gold is over $1,600 US dollars as of 8/29/2012 and an ounce of silver is $30.75. There is three times more gold than silver in world markets. Silver has a myriad of industrial uses while gold does not.
So one of these days silver is going to be ungagged that could cause an explosion on the upside while the shorts frantically try to buy back the silver they have sold. On the commodity side they have upper and lower limits and when those limits are reached they just close shop and go home until the next day.
So how can us little guys make a bundle from all this?
When there is a will there is a way. Never give up trying.
Just get a pair of boots and blue jeans and a large sack or laundry bag and meander down to your town transfer station(trash dump) and look for thrown away TV’s and computers and anything electronic. They all have to have a mother board that connects the chips to each other.
There is silver in those connectors and chips. Rip them out and put them in you bag. When you have enough to carry go home. Now set up a system where you can burn in boards and are left with just silver. It will take a little practice to work out safely, so start small. You do not want to burn down your home.
Now store the silver and wait. When the National TV News starts off with the price of silver; that is when you go to local pawn shops and start selling. Just a little in the beginning until you feel secure.
So when grandiose wealthy individual takes you out of the game and starts selling and trading to the other heavy weights – just wait. There will come a day when they all want to sell.
TO WHOM?
In the end the big greedy guys end up the real bag holders – NOT US!!!
