April 11, 2019 - The private concessionaire over the monopoly line Kamenari - Lepetane in Boka Bay, the Herceg Novi company Maritime Traffic achieved a profit of 1.95 million last year, which is 6.3 percent less than a year earlier. 

10 April 2019 - Prime Minister Duško Marković hosted Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan Eldar Hasanov. The meeting noted that Montenegro and Azerbaijan could further enrich their excellent political bilateral relations with stronger economic cooperation and more investment in tourism, but also energy and infrastructure. 

"Montenegro has made a huge step forward in the overall progress. We have been NATO member state for two years now, we have progressed far in the negotiations with the EU, and we are strongly committed to economic growth and development issues," PM Marković stressed. 

Furthermore, he pointed to important economic parameters - a growth rate of 4.9 percent in the previous year, a steady increase in revenues, an increase in the number of employees by 12,000, a decrease in unemployment by six percent, and added that the industry grew in the previous year. 

"I sincerely congratulate you on this result," Ambassador Hasanov said, adding that Azerbaijani investors are interested in new investments in tourism resorts as well as in infrastructure strengthening projects. 

The meeting discussed the most significant investment from Azerbaijan in Montenegro - Porto Novi, which will give a new quality to the tourist offer of Montenegro. 

The Ambassador particularly appreciated stability and security in Montenegro and praised its constructive role in the region.

The two countries recently introduced that direct flight between Montenegro and Azerbaijan should be available soon. During this occasion, President of Montenegro Milo Đukanović and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev agreed that it was essential to discuss and encourage the introduction of direct flights between Montenegro and Azerbaijan and to abolish visas between the two states.

“Successful implementation of the ‘Portonovi’ project represents the result of high level of trust that exists at the highest and all the other levels of the government,” Aliyev noted.

Montenegro is also actively cooperating with Azerbaijan in the field of culture and the latest meeting which took place in Baku in October 2018 discussed the cooperation in the field of cultural heritage, having in mind that Montenegro is interested in the candidacy of Ćilim from Bihor to the UNESCO’s Best Practice List. Considering that Baku has a Carpet Museum, on this occasion Minister Bogdanović stressed that Montenegro finds the exchange of experiences in this area critical since the tradition of Azerbaijan’s Carpet is registered on the UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

09 April 2019 - Works on the construction of energy infrastructure for electricity supply of Bar-Boljare motorway are planned to start in August this year. “Monteput” company is in charge of the realization of the investment that will cost 31,6 million EUR.

The public tender has not been published yet, and the representatives of the company said that they had to reach an agreement with the Montenegrin Electricity Distribution System and Montenegrin Electric Transmission System regarding the regulation of rights and responsibilities on account of the buy-back of the energy infrastructure.

“Preparations for the public tender for the contractor are underway. Also, the procedures regarding the issuance of approvals for the purchase of energy infrastructure are on,” said the representatives of “Monteput”.

One of the pre-requisites for the tender is the provision of money through a loan.

“Monteput”, headed by Jonuz Mujović, is about to bring the talks about the million loan to the end.

“We are negotiating with several potential creditors over the provision of funds for the realization of this project. Right now, we are not able to give you any more details,” said the representatives of “Monteput”.

Around 160.000 EUR will be earmarked for the repayment of the loan for the highway electricity supply.

“We think that it would not be appropriate if we bid names of the interested companies. It is still very early,” said the representatives of “Monteput”.

Works are due to be completed in a period of 15 months.

The executive director of ‘Monteput’, Jonuz Mujević also stated that the Bar-Boljare motorway should be completed by September 2020.

Mujević said that the construction works performed by China’s CRBC company should be completed by May 2019 but there are delays due to “certain misunderstandings of the design, harmonization with the European documents and hydro-geological researches.”

“The negotiations on signing the Annex to the Contract are about to finish. There are certain obstacles in the implementation of the previous construction works. ‘Monteput’ expected everything would go much faster,” said Mujević at the round-table on the motorway organized by the Network of Affirmation of the NGO Sector, MANS.

Also, he stressed that having in mind the quality of the motorway, Montenegro is going to have the lowest possible maintenance costs according to European standards.

09 April 2019 - NATO will donate a 3D radar system to Montenegro which is going to be installed on Bjelasica. The Ministry of Defense applied earlier for the abandonment of the radar which is worth around 20 million EUR.

“We can confirm the grant of the radar to Montenegrin authorities. This important step is another of our efforts that go into ensuring defense and protection of the air space of the country, together with the police air forces provided by the ally planes from Greece and Italy,” said representatives of NATO.

Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Montenegro, Dragutin Dakić, recently presented the information about the radar.

“The next step in modernization is the provision of radar. Since it is a pretty big investment, we got it in the form of a donation from NATO. We must finance it through equipment and arrangement of positioning at an annual level. That way, we will cover all the critical spots to round up the whole picture of Montenegro. However, considering its configuration and the fact that Montenegro has got many dark angles, we opted for the radar that will most likely be installed on Bjelasica. This way, our air space will be integrated into the NATO system,” said Dakić at the meeting of the Safety Committee held recently.

According to the unofficial knowledge of “Pobjeda”, Montenegro will defray expenses of transport and installation. It could cost around 4 million EUR, considerably less than if it had to cover all the expenses of the radar system by itself.

Commenting on the donation, a military analyst, Aleksandar Radić, said that it was very important, especially in financial terms.

“It is necessary to sign a technical agreement which would define the model of the borrowing and if that will be a national borrowing of if NATO agency will make procurement within its possibilities,” pointed out Radić.

Long-term defense plan envisaged the procurement of 3D radar which will enable full operational capacity for generating the image of the situation in the air space of Montenegro.

Source: Cafe del Montenegro

The Central Bank of Montenegro introduced bankruptcy at Atlas Bank today, and Mirko Radonjic was appointed as the bankruptcy trustee. Out of the work remains the current 198 employees, of which the bankruptcy trustee can temporarily keep up to 10 percent of this number during bankruptcy. Total deposits with this bank amount to 189 million euros, of which there are protected deposits in individual amounts up to 50,000 thousand and guaranteed by the Deposit Protection Fund for 89 million euros. The deadline for deciding on the payment of protected depositors is 15 days, and the fund now in the accounts has 108 million euros so it can pay off all protected depositors.

This was stated by representatives of the Central Bank and the Deposit Protection Fund at a press conference today.

Governor of the Central Bank, Radoje Zugic, said that the interim administration since its introduction on December 7^th found that Atlas Bank's parameters were much worse than the bank represented, that the solvency was negative by minus seven percent, that the total assets were precluded and that the total bank's liabilities exceeded its capital by EUR 1.14 million, which are the reasons for direct bankruptcy. Mr Zugic said that they could not ascertain earlier that this bank had such bad parameters and that they hoped that the bank would be saved through recapitalization. He stated that there were more interested investors for recapitalization, that two of them submitted the bid but did not pass a credibility test.

Asked if he felt obliged to resign due to a violation of the banking system, as two banks went bankrupt, Zugic said there is no reason to resign, stating that deposits grow, the liquidity of all other banks is strengthened and the banking system has never been better.

The Governor said that he had several meetings with the owners and the management of IBM and Atlas Bank last year in order to improve the situation in these banks. He said that they came out stronger from this situation and that the banking system was more robust as it strengthens departments for bank control and preventing money laundering.

Zugic admitted that when the forced administration was introduced, he promised the healing of the bank and not bankruptcy, but then they did not have all the information on bank parameters and hidden situations and they expected recapitalization. Director of the Department for Bank Control Dejan Vujacic said that Atlas Bank has 88,526 depositors, out of which 70,000 depositors have claims less than ten euros, and ten thousand depositors have less than 100 euro claims. The state has 8.9 million deposits as well as a 7.1 million claim for paid guarantees to Atlas Bank. Vujacic said he expected that part of this, the state would charge through bankruptcy. According to him, 63 million deposits are frozen by the decision of the High Court for investigation, that the non-residents have another 37 million deposits, and all residents are 22 million, counting the state. As he said the frozen part of the funds is in the account at another bank and was not used.

Director of Deposit Protection Fund Predrag Markovic said they had a 15-day deadline to start paying off guaranteed deposits and that they have the money for all. He said that IBM depositors have so far been paid 15.6 million or 60 percent of guaranteed deposits, as well as they have already paid ten million of that amount through bankruptcy proceedings.

Vujačić said he expects that from the bankruptcy of Atlas bank the Fund will charge up to 90 percent of 89 million which needs to be paid to protected depositors and that there will be no need to raise premiums by commercial banks to compensate for the money lost by the Deposit Protection Fund.

Asked why the two remaining models to try to recover Atlas Bank were not used, such as the sale of shares of existing shareholders with the recapitalization and the transfer of assets and liabilities of the bank to another bank, Vujacic responded that new parameters showed that liquidity was minus 7 percent and that the assets are less than the obligations, pointing out these as the main reasons for bankruptcy. He argued that CBCG could not establish it earlier.

Temporary administrator at CBCG Tanja Teric said there had been an overestimation of assets, also due to the lost dispute with Kaspia and claims from the Mail bank from Austria. She argued that it was not true that temporary administration increased costs and deteriorated the parameters, as criticism could be heard by Atlas bank, but these were rather improved as much as the temporary administration could do.

She also pointed out that she calculated well that 22 million euros were needed for healing the bank through recapitalization, as despite the bad parameters with such recapitalization, the solvency ratio would be 10.8 percent or 10 percent above the legal limit.

Text by Goran Kapor, on April 5th 2019, read more at Vijesti

04 April 2019 - Prime Minister Duško Marković and representatives of the renowned Dutch shipbuilding company Damen Kommer Damen and Porto Montenegro Mohammed Al-Shaibaniagreed said at a meeting in Bijela that the project of the transition of the former shipyard into the service of luxury yachts is successfully developing in accordance with plans, that it represents a new aspect of Montenegro's development, and that it is expected that the new industry will employ up to 450 workers when it is in full operation. 

Representatives of Damen, which employs 10,000 people in 35 shipyards on five continents, build 160 vessels every year and generates an annual turnover of two billion euros, presented a plan for the transition of the former shipyard. The plan is to rebuild 14 yachts in the first season 2020/2021, while in the fifth and sixth year they expect to reach full capacity - 100 yachts a year with an average employment of more than 400 people. 

"That means we need a lot of employees. We want to find out as quickly as possible whether people from Montenegro are looking forward to work. We want to provide training for interested people in our shipyards in Northern Europe and to organise a training programme in Bijela," representatives of the Damen Group told Prime Minister Marković.

Prime Minister Duško Marković stressed that, after visiting the site, he is thrilled with what he saw, having in mind that it is one of the projects that changes the Montenegrin economy. 

"I have been waiting for this moment for a long time, and today I feel fine. There were challenges, but we overcame them together. This project is important for the whole of Montenegro because it changes the whole philosophy of our development. With this project, we first solve the issue of the environment and open up a new clean industry. At the same time, we connect our tourism industry and industry. That is why this is a new era in the economic development of Montenegro. This needs to be understood by every state administration official. Any limitations will be overcome. Here I see a perspective for young people and that is why I am pleased that Damen is here. We need your experience and your know-how more than money. You will enjoy the full support of the Government," Prime Minister Duško Marković underlined at the meeting. 

In the context of the importance of development based on clean technologies, the Prime Minister recalled that the Government allocated EUR 50 million for remediation of five locations: the former shipyard in Bijela, solid waste dumps and red sludge pools in the former Aluminum Plant, the abandoned mine shafts of Šuplja stijena and the coal ash and slug from Maljevac dump. 

After the meeting, leaders of the Damen Group and Porto Montenegro, who on 30 November 2018, signed with the Government the concession agreement for the Shipyard in Bijela, with the aim of transforming the former shipyard into a service of luxury yachts, shared the optimism. 

Chairman of the Damen Shipyards Group Kommer Damen expressed his special gratitude to the Prime Minister for engaging in this project. 

"I am very grateful that with the assistance of the Government of Montenegro, and especially the Prime Minister, we have made progress in cleaning the Shipyard and that we are likely to start operations in March 2020," Kommer Damen said following the meeting.

Executive Director and Member of the Board of Directors of Porto Montenegro David Margason said that he is thrilled by the fact that, after a long preparation, the remediation and the beginning of the shipyard transition are finally underway. 

"I am very pleased that our investment in tourism in the last ten years has finally brought new investments into this business," said David Margason. 

The Prime Minister also spoke with Executive Director of the Investment Corporation of Dubai and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Porto Montenegro Mohammed Al-Shaibani. 

The meeting discussed the plans for further development of Porto Montenegro as one of the most important tourist resources of our country, as well as plans for expanding the tourist offer. 

For the promotion and development of agriculture in 2019, Pljevlja municipality will allocate EUR 302,000, which is at the level of the previous year.

The most money, 68,000 euros, will be allocated for milk subsidies. The municipality will pay the cattle-breeder for each liter delivered to registered dairies three cents, as in the previous year.

"From the total production in the municipality Pljevlja most of the unprocessed milk remains on the farm and households which process that milk into dairy products, cheese, and kajmak or use it for their consumption. These products appear on an organized market in a minimal extent. On the other hand, demand for commercial dairy products is increasing, especially in tourist areas. Low production of milk per livestock unit and increasing demands on milk quality reduce the producers' interest in selling milk to dairies. Despite the periodic surplus of crude milk in the market, raising the competitiveness of the dairy sector through direct support to producers can significantly accelerate the development of milk market production and its adaptation to EU standards," says the agrarian-policy program for this year.

About 60,000 euros will be allocated for the promotion of livestock breeding, i.e., breeding of heifers and fattening male cattle.

Farms that carry out organized fattening will have the right to financial support up to €100 per livestock unit.

With 19,000 euros, the municipality will assist the production of continental fruit, and with 21,000 for the berry fruit. "Although there are favorable agro ecological conditions and human resources available, the production of berry fruit in the municipality of Pljevlja is not sufficiently represented. The production of berry fruit is, if it is organized in the right way, highly profitable and can lead to progress, both for the individual farms and the local community. The Rural Development Strategy in 2012 has started an initiative to increase the production of berry fruit and has so far moved upward," the document states.

For existing plantations of berry fruit and raising new, a direct aid of 500 euros for a minimum area of 0.10 hectares will be provided and the municipality will also support the purchase of equipment for planting, fertilizing, small mechanization, equipment and connections necessary for plant maintenance.

The municipality will subsidize farmers who decide to produce vegetables, flowers, medicinal herbs and mushrooms, organic food production as well as the supply of equipment, connectors and small appliances, greenhouses and irrigation systems.

There is also support for 15 young beekeepers who are beginners, for the purchase of three beehives, for which the municipality will bear the total cost.

The municipality will also subsidize 50% of the insurance of registered farmers for pension and health insurance. For this purpose, the municipality will allocate seven thousand euros.

The local government will use 400 euros to help young couples in the village who have been married or had a baby. The municipality will also support investments in family households to protect Pljevlja cheese.

This measure aims to stop the depopulation of the rural area.

"The villages in the area of Pljevlja municipality are faced with a major problem of migration of the local population towards the cities, and especially among the youth. A small number of agricultural producers are in the agricultural insurance system, by the Pension and Health Insurance Act. In most settlements of the rural area, there are intensive migration flows to Pljevlja and the centers of neighboring municipalities. One of the measures in the strategic development documents of the Municipality Pljevlja is to improve the quality of life and spread economic activities in the rural area through the introduction of stimulating measures for the people in these areas," the statement explains.

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Text by Goran Malidzan, on March 31st, 2019, read more at Vijesti