Skopje Railway Station set for upgrade

The Macedonian Government is continuing with furious tempo to build new and upgrade the existing infrastructure around the country. 

The upgrade of Skopje’s main railway station, a project worth 2.6 million euro ($3.6 million), is planned to get underway in mid-2012, the Transport Ministry said.

A consultant that will draw up the project in line with European Union standards is planned to be picked this year, Transport Ministry spokesman Dragan Simonovski said in a written statement sent to local media on Tuesday.

Macedonia becomes part of dutch tourism offer

Ohrid hotel owners and representatives of tour-operator TUI Netherlands signed over the weekend an agreement for lease of holidays at the Ohrid Lake for the coming three seasons.

TUI Netherlands is planning to sell over 7,000 holidays for the next season, along with increase of charter flights to Ohrid.

Vice Premier for Economic Affairs Vladimir Pesevski and TUI officials held Monday a meeting focused on the operator's plans in Macedonia for the coming period.

"We referred to possibilities for improvement of Macedonia's tourism offer. It is of enormous significance for us to improve Macedonia's competitiveness on the global market. Therefore, we aim towards increasing the quality and diversity of our tourism sector", stated Pesevski.

TUI is a leader in the Dutch tourism industry, producing 1,3 million holidays at the country's market in 2010, with a turnover of EUR 1,4 billion. TUI Netherlands is part of the TUI Travel Group, a leading tour-operator in Europe, working in 180 countries and servicing over 30 million tourists in global terms. TUI owns 150 airplanes and employs approximately 49,000 people at six continents.

Goran Atanasovski - Awarded best promoter of Macedonia

Skopje, 16 March 2011 (MIA) - Goran Atanasovski is the winner of 2010 Best Promoter Award for his on-line project Travel2Macedonia and website www.travel2macedonia.com.mk.

The Macedonia's Best Promoter Award is initiated by the project 'Macedonia Loves You' (www.macedonialovesyou.com) as a recognition to people who love Macedonia and promote the country across the globe by their music, photos, humanitarian activities...

The project's mastermind, Macedonia's sincere friend form Poland Stanisalv Pigon, presented the award to Atanasovski at a ceremony in Skopje City Museum.

The Life Achievement Award is presented to Victor A. Friedman for his 35 efforts to promote the Macedonian language and culture across the globe.

Extra statutory awards are presented to Vesna Sokolovska for promoting the Macedonian culture, tradition in London, tenor Blagoj Nacoski for his artistic achievements and promotion of Macedonia worldwide, Team Macedonia Export for supporting Macedonian companies abroad and Vasko Markovski for his 'Free Time Guide' publication.

Awards are also presented to several, individuals, associations and companies.

The award winners have been chosen by citizens at a contest, which was running on the social network Facebook in the past three months.

Nearly 40 Events at 51st Ohrid Summer Festival

The 51st Ohrid Summer Festival will be formally opened on Tuesday (July 12) with "Trilogia Romana", a grand multimedia project produced by famous Spanish company "La Fura dels Baus" and performed by the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra. The festival this year, which ends of Aug. 20, will host about forty events."Trilogia Romana" is composed by Ottorino Respighi, which was performed last month in Rome and Valencia. "La Fura dels Baus" company has been producing plays for 32 years and is known for its uniqueness.Selector of the music program, Gordana Josifova-Nedelkovska told a press conference on Wednesday that the festival would see the performances by Nigel Kennedy - one of the most famous violinists in the world, eminent Russia pianists, Alexander Gindin, Alexei Volodin and Boris Berezovsky, as well as many others.Other must-see performances, especially by Macedonian artists, are the concerts by guitarist Vlatko Stefanovski and violinist Stefan Milenkovic on Aug. 1 and by musician Duke Bojadziev on Aug. 2 at the Antique Theater in Ohrid.
"This year the program is different from last year's because it was retrospective. The festival once again aims to bring fresh artists from all around the world. In the past 50 years, the festival hosted an impressive number of musicians, however nowadays there is a pleiad of amazing musicians who perform in packed venues worldwide and our goal is to bring artists who haven't performed before in Ohrid," she said.
Selector of the drama program, Gjorgi Jolevski said this year's Ohrid Summer Festival offered performances of classical plays by Euripides, Heiner Muller, Beaumarchais, William Shakespeare...
There will be three premieres at the festival - "The Marriage of Figaro" directed by Levan Tsuladze and produced by the Macedonian National Theater, "Cabaret Misterioso" directed by Dejan Damjanovski and produced by the Ohrid Theater. Ohrid Summer Festival will be closed with the premiere of "Medea" directed by Nada Kokotovic and produced by the Bitola National Theater.In addition to concerts and plays, the festival also offers numerous exhibitions.

Lets go to Venice! Skopje - Venice Flight 25.99 Euros

Starting from September 20, you can fly from Skopje to Venice with one-way fares starting at 25.99 EUR, all taxes and fees included, Hungarian low cost airline Wizz-air said in a statement. 

‘This is only the beginning. We plan to introduce other flight routes’, Commercial Director of Wizz Air, Gyorgy Abran said at today’s press conference. 

WizzAir has launched flights from Skopje to London, as of June 19. So far, WizzAir has sold about 8250 one-way tickets to London. 

The company expects that by the end of the year at least 25.000 people will book flights to London or Venice. 

You can book tickets easily by paying online using your credit or debit card. You can get a cheaper deal by booking your flight early.

Q1: Macedonian GDP up 5.1%

The Macedonian economy expanded by a real 5.1% on the year in the first quarter of 2011 compared to a revised annual drop of 0.5% a year ago, preliminary statistical data sowed on Friday. 

Macedonia's gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter totalled 102.601 billion denars ($2.34 billion/1.66 billion euro) in current prices, the country's statistics office said in a statement.

Pianist Trpceski wraps up Concert season in Australia, New Zealand

Pianist Simon Trpceski wrapped up his latest series of performances across Great Britain with last night's concert at the Midsummer Music Festival.

The highly-successful concert season 2010/2011 will be concluded with performances in Australia and New Zealand.

"I'm happy to be able to perform before Australian audiences for the fourth time in Melbourne and Adelaide. The second leg of the tour resumes in New Zealand with several concerts together with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Trpceski told the Macedonian Radio.

In the frameworks of the tour, the Macedonian pianist will hold a seminar at the University of Auckland, where he will hold his last concert on July 15. The tour "Down Under" starts with a concert in Clayton, Australia on June 24.

A second CD of Trpceski's collaboration with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra has been released recently.

The first CD was awarded with the French prestigious international recognition "Golden Diapason", whereas it secure the third spot at the British classical music chart.

Globochica breaks production record

Hydro power plant Globocica has generated the highest production since its establishment in 1966. With 252gWh, the power plant broke the record of 250gWh in 1986, power utility Elektrana Makedonije (ELEM) informed.

"Annual production of Globocica has been achieved already in July. The value of the result is of significant importance since the hydro power plant continues to generate power in accordance with the needs of the power system," reads the official statement of ELEM.

Annual Award for the Best Promoter of Macedonia

Annual Award for the Best Promoter of Macedonia is a simple idea  to honor people who have Macedonia in their hearts and they tell others to fell in love with Macedonia. The Award is introduced to recognize achievements of extraordinary People from different walks of life, all over the world, who have one common goal: promotion of various Macedonian causes. A nominee could be a person (or group of persons) who in 2010 has actively promoted the Republic Macedonia and the country causes and interests, regardless of nationality, region of activities, field and form of promotional activities e.g. cultural, social, economic, tourism, political etc. The Award is honorary . The winner receives a special medal and the title of the Best Promoter of Macedonia.

Everybody can support and lobby for  favored candidates in a special Poll posted at the following link www.facebook.com/Macedonia.BestPromoterAward, where Contest Rules are also available. The Best Promoter of Macedonia Award is initiated and organized by the Macedonia Loves You Project www.macedonialovesyou.com. The contest is open, public and organized annually. Nomination period lasts from November 15th , 2010 until  January 15th, 2011. After the first medal is awarded special Web Page will be developed, presenting the winner and all nominees. Hopefully , this will create a forum for Macedonian Promoters from all over the world. The medal is for one but winners are all!

4th mobile operator in Macedonia

Macedonian Electronic Communications Agency (AEK) has informed that company WTI Macedonia was the first to apply as a virtual mobile operator on the Macedonian market.
This means that the company has the right to use networks of other operators in Macedonia in order to provide services to Macedonian citizens.

For the purpose, the AEK allocated 100,000 numbers to WTI, which the company will be able to sell on its SIM cards. The Netherlands-based company will reportedly start operating in Macedonia in two to three months.