TERRITORIAL AND NATURAL PRIORITIES OF MACEDONIA - IMPORTANT FACTOR FOR TOBACCO PRODUCTION DEVELOPMENT

Territory and natural conditions in Macedonia are well known in the World market of high quality production of oriental type of tobacco. Production of oriental tobacco at such a small territory is insignificant towards other producers (Bulgaria, Turkey), buy it is very important for Macedonian economy. The high value of exported tobacco and other tobacco products is regularly above 100 million USD (113 million USD for 2006 and 106 million USD for 2007). As a family production with low grade of mechanized labor processes, it provides survival of more than 100 000 residents of Macedonia. These reasons are enough to evaluate the importance of tobacco for a country with a gross national income per capita of around $4,120 in 2008, (GNI, Atlas method) and high unemployment rate (over 35%). Natural resources for oriental tobacco production are relatively adequate for the most of the countries from Mediterranean region as well as Balkan Peninsula. However, the specific climate and soil conditions in Macedonia have a high comparative value for oriental tobacco. They enabled the tobacco to have definite value above all other crops from Macedonia, especially in areas limited with water resources and soil with low percentage of humus. High level of tobacco production in the previous period has resulted with building of many huge industrial capacities, warehouses for final processing as well as three factories for cigarette production. They have been all build for the great domestic market (for over twenty million people of Former Yugoslav Republic) and partly for export. Nowadays, these capacities insufficiently are used with annual production of over 5,500 t of cigarettes. Because of inadequate agrarian policy, tobacco production stagnates in the period of long transition and shows a high instability through the years. Therefore, the advantages of Macedonian region remain inadequately used. Macedonian region is characterized with arid climate, because the annual rainfalls are 742 mm/m² (average of 25 years), and the average of the last 10 years is only 582 mm/m² (schedule of the rainfalls is quite unfavorable). The biggest part of the oriental tobacco production is designed for export to the most famous markets (EU, USA, Japan, etc.), because the unprocessed tobacco has a high quality. Specific physical-chemical characteristics make Macedonian tobacco a component of the blend used for large number of the World’s famous tobacco brands of cigarettes. Considering as competitive product in the World market, many countries are interested in buying Macedonian tobacco (EU, SAD, Japan etc.).oriental tobacco, production, natural conditions, quality, export, competitive product, Agribusiness, Crop Production/Industries,

The mobile telecom operator T-Mobile Macedonia AD Skopje abuses its dominant position harmful for the mobile telecom operators ONE and VIP in the telecom market

T-Mobile’s abusing of its dominant position is referring to the postpaid tariff models Relax and Relax Surf regarding the residential customers and the postpaid tariff models Business and Business Surf regarding its business customers. The prominent price offer to consumers is a case of predatory prices squeeze identified as a way of preventing or restricting competition in theory and practice. T-Mobile provides services at unreasonably low prices, prices below the level of expenditures necessary for their provision, as it is specific case with the postpaid tariff models Relax and Relax Surf regarding the residential customers and the postpaid tariff plans Business and Business Surf regarding the business customers. Providing predatory prices is anti-competitive commercial strategy used by a certain dominant enterprise by dumping its prices on a certain relevant market to a price level forcing its competitors to leave the market. The interconnection costs or the cost amount of call termination in their own network or in other operator’s network regardless if it is fixed or mobile are determined by the Agency for Electronic Communications. The major element of the market economy is the free and effective competition. There is not a market economy without a competition as there is not a competition without a market economy. The competition in the market is a simple and effective means ensuring that the products and the services are offered to the customers with an excellent quality and competitive prices. By providing such services with predatory prices, T-Mobile intends to discipline its competitors, to protect and enhance its extended dominant market power on a long-term period. Disabling the competitiveness of the other operators and the inability to replicate the offer provided by an operator with significant market power is undoubtedly a risk leading to competition’s elimination on a long term. Thus, T-Mobile destroys the competition in the field of mobile telephony, taking advantage of its significant market power and dominant market position of the two entities, by providing conditions to which the other market participants are not able to respond due to the expenditure services structure. The competition and the free markets are the main engines of productivity, efficiency, product development, innovation and appropriate pricing. The competitive markets stimulate better technologies and technological development in order to provide products and services to their customers with high quality and prices reflecting the efficient producers’ expenditures

Transparency and Disclosure Practices in Selected Post-Transition Economies

The paper uses the methodology introduced by Standard & Poor’s to assess the level of transparency and disclosure exercised by the recently privatized companies from three Balkan countries: Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia. The procedure involves a thorough examination of the corporate websites to check for the presence of a list of 98 disclosure items. The results show that although the disclosure practices are gradually being improved, they still lag behind those of the older market economies. Additionally, the companies from the financial sector score considerably better than the average and the disclosure of management and governance data are the weakest point in each of the analysed countries. Companies with large shareholders owning sizable stakes are less prone to disclose. Preparation and publishing of classical annual reports is a rare practice and the companies seem to be more comfortable with disclosing data which are already made publicly available through other institutions. We find the reasons for this behaviour in the lack of relevance of the stock market information for the future of the companies and their management, which, in turn, has negative consequences for the development of the same stock markets. Keywords: corporate governance, transparency, disclosure, post-transition, privatization, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia

THE INFLUENCE OF SOME PHYTOHORMONES ON THE ROOTING OF FIG CUTTINGS

The fig is a subtropical fruit species. In the Republic of Macedonia it is grown mainly, in the form of individual plants. Lately there is interest for establishing orchards from this fruit species. The purpose of this research was to determine the influence of some phytohormones on the rooting of hardwood cuttings from fig. The research was conducted with cuttings from 3 domestic populations of figs, “Bela smokva,, “Crna smokva,, and “Petrovka,,. The research was performed on an experimental field, property of the “Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Food,, in Skopje. In the research, two phytohormones were used, indolebuteryc acid 0,1% and 1-Naphthaleneacetic acid 0,1%. In the end of the vegetation period the following parameters were evaluated: percentage of rooting, diameter and length of the shoots, the total mass of the roots, the length and nubmer ofroots with a diameter above 3mm. On the basis of our research we determined that all of the cuttings had a satisfactory, high, percentage of rooting (86,2%). In the population of “Petrovka,, the treatments did not show any statistical significant differences on the evaluated characteristics, regarding the control treatment. With the cuttings from “Bela smokva,, treated with NAA, statistical significant difference was found in the parameter mass of the roots (12,2g), while regarding the nubmer and length of roots, this treatment, had statistical significant difference just with the control but not with the IBA treatment. With “Crna smokva,, the cuttings treated with IBA had the highest values with statistical significant difference with the number (4,5), the mass (24,3 g) and the length of the roots (179,3 cm)

Primary Care and Behavioral Health Services in a Federally Qualified Health Center

Between 2013 and 2016, 8.1% of U.S. adults 20 years and older suffered from depression, but only 29% of them sought help. This project addressed the low depression screening rate in a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) that supported integrated care. The purpose of the project was to evaluate the integration of behavioral health into primary care in an FQHC through the rate of depression screenings. Two theoretical frameworks, the find-organize-clarify-understand-select/plan-do-study-act model and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u27s framework for program evaluation in public health were combined into a list of questions and data validity tests that were used to conduct the evaluation. This quality improvement (QI) project evaluated an existing QI initiative. Findings revealed that 75% of the patients seen, and not the initially reported 53%, received depression screenings, which indicated an improved outcome. Other findings were inadequate use of theoretical frameworks, poor data quality, and suboptimal effectiveness of QI team processes. The strategies and tools recommended in this project could be used by organizational leaders and QI teams to evaluate and improve QI initiatives. The project\u27s contribution to awareness about depression through integrated care could increase patients\u27 access to care, quality of life, and life expectancy, and positively impact social change

What One Can Learn From the Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) Size Distributions as Monitored by the BEO Moussala?

In this proceeding we report initial studies into the big data set acquired by the Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) counter of the Basic Environmental Observatory (BEO) Moussala over the whole 2016 year at a frequency of 1 Hz. First, we attempt to reveal correlations between the results for CCN number concentrations on the timescale of a whole year (2016) as averaged over 12 month periods with the meteorological parameters for the same period and with the same time step. Then, we zoom into these data and repeat the study on the timescale of a month for two months from 2016, January and July, with a day time step. For the same two months we show the CCN size distributions averaged over day periods. Finally, we arrive at our main result: typical, in terms of maximal and minimal number concentrations, CCN size distributions for chosen hours, one hour for each month of the year, hence 24 distributions in total. These data show a steady pattern of peaks and valleys independent of the concrete number concentration which moves up and down the number concentrations (y-axis) without significant shifts along the sizes (x-axis).Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure, The 10th Jubilee Conference of the Balkan Physical Union (BPU10), 26-30 August, Sofia, Bulgari

Determinante strukture kapitala: empirijska studija kompanija iz odabranih post-tranzicijskih ekonomija

The goal of this paper is to examine if there are any determinants that systematically influence the capital structure of the companies in the Balkan countries and to determine if any of the existing capital structure theories are relevant in their case. We apply a panel regression on a sample consisting of the largest and most frequently traded joint-stock companies from four countries. The results show that the larger companies and those with higher fixed asset investments exhibit higher leverage, while the more profitable companies and those with more tangible assets use less debt financing. Other variables, such as the concentration of company ownership, the riskiness of its operating profits and the effective tax rates have not been found statistically significant. These results, supported by the robustness tests, have confirmed our expectation that the managers in these countries do not set specific target leverage ratios, but instead follow a particular order in the selection of the sources of financing. In other words, the companies behave in accordance with the pecking order theory, which is a confirmation of our initial hypothesis. The governments of these countries should put more effort on stimulating the use of other sources of financing to relieve the possible excessive company dependence on the banking sector.Cilj ovog rada je ispitati postoje li determinante koje sustavno utječu na strukturu kapitala kompanija na Balkanskom poluotoku i shodno tome, ustvrditi može li se neka od postojećih teorija o strukturi kapitala smatrati primjenjivom u njihovom slučaju. U istraživanju se koristi panel regresija na primjeru najvećih trgovačkih dioničkih društava iz četiriju zemalja. Rezultati regresije pokazuju da veće tvrtke i one s većim investicijama u fiksne fondove imaju veći stupanj zaduženosti, dok profitabilnije tvrtke i one s većim učešćem materijalnih sredstava u ukupnoj aktivi manje koriste financiranje zaduživanjem. Ostale varijable, kao što su koncentracija vlasništva tvrtke, rizičnost njene poslovne dobiti i efektivna porezna stopa se nisu pokazale statistički značajnima. Ovi rezultati, podržani testovima robusnosti, potvrdili su naša očekivanja da menadžeri u ovim zemljama ne postavljaju ciljne kvocijente zaduženosti, već umjesto toga poštuju određeni red u odabiru izvora financiranja. Iz toga proizlazi da se najrelevantnijom od postojećih teorija može smatrati teorija redoslijeda financiranja. Ekonomskim politikama u analiziranim zemljama treba posvetititi veću pozornost u promoviranju ostalih izvora financiranja, kako bi smanjile preveliku ovisnost kompanija o bankarskom sektoru