DSS reveals platform on new cabinet

this will be my final post. predicatble events have already started to take place.

lets read between the lines:

1. this message is really intended for the CEFTA countries (macedonia, montenegro, bosnia, croatia, albania) and for the regional countries (slovenia, bugaria, romania, greece). where does your interest lie? Recognition of K and its 1.4M person market or solidarity with S and it's soon to be 10M person market? pls decide wisely.

2. to the countries of the west. is kosovo indep so essential to you that you risk "throwing out the baby with the bath water?" pls consider wisely. what is more impt to you partnership with serbia or a partnership with kosovo? pls answer wisely and consider the future of n. mitrovica and republika srpska.

3. to nato. all deals have termination agreements built into them. think wisely about your lack of transport from north to south (down corridor 10). is it worth it to you?

4. to investors who are already in the serbian market: kindly re-inform your ambassadors of your future plans. be not bashful, we all know business determines politics and not the other way around. Money makes the world go around. Not diplomats.

5. to foreign direct investors seeking access to the upcoming large privatizations (the multi-billion dollar ones that really matter) such as phone, corridor 10, cable-tv, theaters, agriculture, metalurgy, and others). pls inform your ambassadors of your current tender proposals. i speak mainly of austria, greece, italy, hungary, and germany. for example: should one of you recognize K, the others may not... leading to loss of a deal for you. do not be shy, we all know business determines politics and not the other way around. Money makes the world go around. Not diplomats.

6. to DS and the other democratic parties. please find some backbone. you have better cards in your hand than you think. Step back into place.

7. to the radicals. pls be prepared to purge your platform of anything offensive or anti-growth; be prepared to publicly abandon seselj; and be prepared to very quickly become very good capitalists.

8. to the serbs of north kosovo. be prepared to "declare independence from independence." you don't need the world's recognition you only need to squat where you are and do nothing. No one dare push you out.

9. to RS: be prepared erase the border between serbia and RS.

10. to the media: is he bluffing or is he for real? Debate it amongst yoursleves.

11. to the good people of kosovo. Be prepared for more delays. It will take months to sort this out. you guys really deserve a better life and I really do hope you get it. You have been thru far too much mistreatement in recent history (from serbs mostly... and secondarily from your own leadership). no one should have to go thru that. You need to negotiate a viable future for yourselves. Not a future that antagonizes serbia and which will lead you to yet new hardships. good luck!

These 2 parties should immediately merge and take a good first step in reducing the Balkanization of the Serbian body politic.Serbia will do much better with only 2 or 3 major parties negotiating in Parliament.

Man, the world is shaking from this decision. What is the rest of the world going to do when Serbia is going to cut their power supply.
Maybe the new serbian goverment is going to embargo the world.
Come on, be serious.

I dont understand why serbs overestimate thier possibilities. Why is it so important for Kosova to reach northern europe through Serbia?
There are so many ways to go there. All of neighbouring countries, support Kosova's independence for a reason. They dont like Serbia.
There is a highway that they just started to bulid fom Port of Durres to Kosova. You will be from Prishtina to Durres for 3 hrs. and after that the world is yours. Montenegro also will be very happy to help.
Is it Serbia going to isolate herself from all Albanian, Monenegrin, Croatian and Slovenian ports, because all those countries, support independence for Kosova?
Well, that would be really benefitial for serbs.

To concerned:
1. CEFTA countries are (Albania 3.781.922 Albanians, Macedonia 40% Albanians, Kosova 2.400.000 people (600.000 in western countries) with 100.000 Kosovar Serb's, Montenegro 16% Albanians + (120.000 in USA), Serbia with Presheva Valley, Bosnia and Croatia).
2. Partnership why western countries have to choice? Typically Serbian nationalistic way of thinking! But if they have to choice of course is Albania because very soon Albanians will represent many countries in the region (Albania, Kosova, Macedonia and Montenegro).
3. NATO: BONDSTEL in Kosova is biggest Nato base in the region + Corridor (Germany - Rumania – Bulgaria), Albanian Adriatic & Jon sea AMBO project signed today etc.
4. To the Investitors, Kosova is richest with resources in the region USA & Uk & France… they already make a choice.
5. Foreign direct investment (FDI) is defined as a long-term investment: Facts about Albania and Serbia:

Al: Population statistics 3.781.922 + Albanian Kosovar's
Sr: Population statistics 6,396,411
Al:
0 -14 years - 25,6 %
15 - 64 years - 65,8 %
older than 65 - 8,6 %
Sr:
0 - 14 years - 14,1 %
15 - 64 years - 46,9 %
older than 65 - 39 %

Al: GDP (purchasing power parity): $20.21 billion note: Albania has a large gray economy that may be as large as 50% of official GDP (2006 est.)
Sr: GDP (purchasing power parity): $33.83 billion
Al: GDP (official exchange rate): $9.306 billion (2006 est.)
Sr: GDP (official exchange rate): $15.19 billion
Al: GDP - real growth rate: 5% (2006 est.)
Sr: GDP - real growth rate: 3.9% (2005 est.)
Al: GDP - per capita (PPP): $5,600 (2006 est.)
Sr: GDP - per capita (PPP): $3,400 (2005 est.)
Al: Labor force: 1.09 million (not including 352,000 emigrant workers) (2004 est.)
Sr: Labor force: 1.61 million for Serbia (2002 est.)
Al: Unemployment rate: 14.3%
Sr: Unemployment rate: 31.6%
Al: Population below poverty line: 25% (2004 est.)
Sr: Population below poverty line: 30%
Al: Inflation rate (consumer prices): 2.8% (2006 est.)
Sr: Inflation rate (consumer prices): 15.5% (2005 est.)
Al: Investment (gross fixed): 24.5% of GDP (2006 est.)
Sr: Investment (gross fixed): 14.2% of GDP (2005 est.)
Al: Oil - proved reserves: 585.5 million bbl (1 January 2002)
Sr: Oil - proved reserves: 38.75 million bbl (1 January 2002)
Al: Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: $2.621 billion (2006 est.)
Sr: Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: $5.35 billion (2005 est.)
Al: Debt - external: $1.55 billion (2004)
Sr: Debt - external: $15.43 billion

6. Internal affairs as a neighbor No comment
7. Idem
8. To the Kosovar Serbs you have to choose between your country Kosova and build together with Albanians your future or to choose hate and misery and you know where it takes.
9. Internal affairs as a neighbor No comment.
10. To media and specially to B92: I hope that after Independence we Albanians are welcome in this site B92 and change our views with Serbian Democrats for the better life.
11. To Albanians Forgive but never forget what happened to our Nation in the past decades.

Jarni get your fact strait

Serbia's GDP growth is 6.4% this YEARS not 2005!

Second all major roads from Kosovo go through Serbia!

Second Kosovo does not have that many resources as you might think.

Albanian highway with Kosovo? HAHA ya good place to get mugged on...

Serbia's market is higher than ALbania can ever hope to be

UNemploymenr rate? ya check this out from CIA website!

Albania-14.3% official rate, but may exceed 30% due to preponderance of near-subsistence farming

Serbia-31.6%
note: unemployment is approximately 50% in Kosovo

SO where did you get your facts!??

Albanians will represent major part of region? no I am afraid they wont actually.

OH and check the population levels of SERBS in the region as well as the world!!

Serbia is more stable economically,politically than Albania. Albania is the poorest country in Europe as well has the most crime and corruption with least human rights. The Albania mafia is the biggest in the world.....there's some national pride for you.

Hermon
Montenegro is much closer to Serbia more than half of Monte;s consider them selfs Serbs! FYROM KNOW'S what Serbia has gone through 2001 ring a bell? and are scared to death to anger the "poor" Albanians! Face it neither Bosnia or Croatia or any other Balkan country CARE either way!

from them its a "What ever" situation, non of them have openly said they support it.

Blag, you've done your best. as i said earlier you just happened to be on the wrong side of the fence that's all.

I think you're last comment should be posted once the independence is granted, hopefully very soon and congratulate your counterpart commentators. Us the pro-independence side. We’ve tried to be as rational as possible.

I understand that you have kids and wish you and your family all the best .

Hopefully our kids we’ll be able to promote peace and partnership in our big mansion THE EU.

I have no idea where the last person has their facts from, but by the IMF statistics, Serbia has a GDP per capita of $5700, not 3400 and a GDP of $47.77 Billion (not 33billion). Get your facts sorted, Serbias economy is much more dynamic and stronger than that of Albania!
(sources: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2006/02/data/weorept.aspx?sy=2003&ey=2007&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=965&s=NGDPD%2CNGDPDPC%2CPPPWGT%2CPPPPC&grp=0&a=&pr1.x=85&pr1.y=3)

"Oil - proved reserves:
585.5 million bbl (1 January 2002)."

Uh, no. Looks like a typo (please post the link in future (i.e. https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/print/al.html)
Oil - proved reserves:
185.5 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Some of the figures include Montenegro too.

As for a straight comparison, they do not represent the whole story and is in reality of little value. Also it should be remembered that Serbia (along with Montenegro) was under sanctions for over a decade. Apples and pears.

Level of education & intellectual captial counts for a lot, as long as skilled workers. Serbia has much better infrastructure and is by far the main route for trade through the Balkans (rail, road) and has many more developed industries.

LOL, Albania cut a deal with China and they totally tricked u guys over your country went bankrupt because of pyramid scheme of investments. You said the Durees to Pristina highway that will take about 10 years to build you have to add in the delays during the winter. Currently you have to buy power from Kosovo to keep the lights on and since Block B is down now they cannot export electricity and have to get it from SERBIA because Bulgaria's plants are off line for maintenance. I laugh sometimes at the post people make. On Friday when the proposal is made public two things will happen 1. Riots in Kosovo will break out NATO will use necessary force to quell the riots, place a curfew on problem areas deploy troops to protect historical and cultrual sights and various other measure. Past events are lessons learned don't think since groups are protesting that it will be allowed for people to go crazy and do as they please. 2. Maybe we have learned from 2004 that violence and the threat of violence does not solve anything but push back status. Blame yourself and stupid people who thing the world is not watching what is going on.

It seems that the cards that Serbian politicians like to shuffle come from a very very thin deck. Just before Rambouillet, Milosevic organized a referendum that declared Kosova an internal affair. The IC simply brushed it aside and went ahead to organize the talks; amazingly Yugoslavia participated, regardless of what the voters had voted in that referendum. Just before the bombing, Yugoslavia threatened that it will cut ties with every country participating in the campaign. It broke off diplomatic relationship with US, to no avail; then restored them shortly after. Now again we have the same referendum, and the same threats. Deja vu all over again.
I'm looking forward to hear from more mature politicians in Serbia. Like it or not, we will be neighbors for a long time. So lets leave the short-sighted politics aside. Let's recognize and respect each-other. As two neighboring countries, independent and free of each-other. Let's try to cooperate, or at least lets try to have a semblance of normalcy in this neighborhood of ours. The job of the politicians is to make peoples life easier not more difficult.

What's your point Jarina. You're comparing Albania's statistics from 2006 to Serbia's statistics from 2005. That doesn't make sense. You shouldn't assume people who visit this site cannot realise this.

I'm a little confused. Are you from Albania or Kosovo?

Sounds to me like you're a supporter of Greater Albania, yet you're probably one of those people who accuses Serbs of trying to create a Greater Serbia.

Wow.. I am impressed with you blag… Go ahead – block all the rest of the world, let them feel what does mean when Serbia gets angry… come on be serious blag… don’t imagine Serbia as a super power… in contrary it is powerless comparing to the Balkan countries let aside the west Europe and USA etc etc…

Blag,

I do hope that you have not posted your last comment but understand maybe the break in posting. I guess you might be back when we have some developments mirroring certain aspects that you have portrayed in the last post. Till then I will remind others of your last post every so often. For now I wish you god speed and all the best.

To concerned:
5. Al: Oil - proved reserves: 585.5 million bbl (1 January 2002)

We are now 1 February 2007 and Albania is not stopped in the myths but they worked hard and they signed some major contracts with the western companies in Oil researches.

a) Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: OXY) announced that a group led by its subsidiary Occidental of Albania Ltd. has signed production-sharing contracts with the National Petroleum Agency of Albania for three blocks covering more than 1.1 million acres, according to PR Newswire. Blocks A, 2 and 3 are located within the eastern portion of an onshore fold and thrust belt where more than 500 million barrels of oil and 1 trillion cubic feet of gas have been discovered.

b) MedOil, a London-based oil and gas exploration company, plans to search for oil in the Ionian and Adriatic Seas. An agreement signed this month by Albanian Minister of Economy, Trade and Energy Genc Ruli and Executive Director of MedOil Joseph McKniff provides for three phases of searches within seven years at a cost of 20.3m euros.
MedOil -- which focuses mainly on exploration in Southern Europe -- is allowed to work within the so called 'Joni-5' offshore, approximately 2,500 sq km of seafloor off southern Albania extending to the northern boundary of Greece.
The agreement will be presented for ratification by the Council of Ministers, which the directors expect to take place in late October 2006 (all ready Signed).
Chief Executive David Thomas, commenting on the agreement with the Albanian government, said: "We are pleased to have been awarded this highly prospective offshore permit, where three hydrocarbon plays are identified in the block, all with successful analogues in the Adriatic region."
"A number of leads and prospects have already been mapped using the existing 2-D seismic data," he added.
The British company will carry out exploration in three stages in the Ionian Sea from the Karaburun Peninsula to the southernmost town of Saranda, and in the Durres area in the Adriatic Sea.
"The first one will last two years, the second three years and the last one will last two more years. The contract, in cases when there are discoveries of new sources, will be 20 years. The ministry has made its research on the free exploration areas for oil, petrol and gas in the sea and Earth and now it is promoting them to the international companies," Ruli explained.
According to experts, the restart of the exploration missions signals good prospects for the discovery of hydrocarbons thrust belt where more than 1.2 billion barrels of oil . They also say that this initiative will attract more foreign companies to Albania (only 20 % of Albanian territory prospected).

Today researches in Albania cover 82 places and many of them Oil is founded…
23 Western and some Arabic Oil companies are waiting for the right to make researches in Jon Sea and Adriatic sea.
Should I go one about Albanian Oil???...

GDP for Serbia,
CIA site is not updated for Serbia I don’t know the reason! But if we take Albania GDP the same year 2005 study says: Albania is in any level more attractive then Serbia or other countries in the region...
Today we learned from Serbian bank that Serbia’s 2006 deficit is 5.36 billion €, 11% higher deficit than in 2005, I’m not pleased for this bad economic news only those people with the dark heart are pleased when a neighbors is not going well.

CIA page says 185 million. None of your other sources states 585 million.

1st link that you didn't bother to post, here dated 1998: http://www.hri.org/cgi-bin/brief?/news/balkans/albatim/last/98-01-19.albatim.html

According to the Oxy website (http://www.oxy.com/oil_gas/world_ops/where_we_operate.htm) there is no reference to Albania.

Second source (MedOil): http://www.medoilplc.com/index.asp?id=120
Funnily enough, no mention of 1.5 billion bbl by the people who should know, only unnamed 'experts'. Where are the big players like BP, Exxon etc.?

Even if this was true, then countering in the cost of extracting the oil, it may well not make economic sense nor provide substantial cash directly to Albania. Also add that extraction of said oil would be a number of years from now.

If that is all you can produce, then it very much looks like you are grasping at straws. You are wasting time comparing Serbia and Albania's economy, and for what purpose?

P.S. Germany has just announced it was shutting down it's last thermal power station station. So who is going to buy Albania's lignite (with a high content of 3% sulfur)?

The future is nuclear, even if it is only to produce hydrogen.

Please don't post anything without a link and that is also not the same rehashed information from a sole source.

One should bear in mind that Serbia's statistics reflect 15 years of war, 8 years of sanctions and 3 months of intensive bombing that crippled a significant portion of its infrastructure.

Therefore, the most disturbing statistic in this mess is why have the others countries of the region not surpassed the economic levbel of serbia? If this is the best you can show considering the obstacles Serbia had before it, it's not a very impressive show at all.

For confirmation, Foreign Direct Investment Magazine's website placed Serbia at #1 place of potential for 2006. Albania did not show up on the list.

"...the most disturbing statistic in this mess is why have the others countries of the region not surpassed the economic level of serbia? ..."

Indeed, but it would not really be fair to compare Serbia or the other parts of the former SFRY to Romania, Bulgaria et al. The SFRY was never part of the Soviet Union and had a mixed and quite diverse economy. Private companies of up to 20 persons (I might be slightly off here) were allowed, so there was a lot of small business going on. There was good money to be made if you were enterprising enough.

So, the other states were starting from much further back. Add the fact that sanctions against Serbia & Montenegro significantly impacted on the whole balkan economy and turned it into a state that relied on smuggling supplies, whether oil by underground pipeline from albania, or black market petrol and other goods from Bulgaria, Romania and to a lesser extent Hungary. That helped to perpetuate the grey/black economies throughout the Balkans.

Just imagine, if the EU hadn't stabbed the SFRY in the back and thrown international law to the wind, it would have long have joined the EU! Pity the EU wasn't interested in the 'barbarians' from the balkans at the time...

this will be my final post. predicatble events have already started to take place.

lets read between the lines:

1. this message is really intended for the CEFTA countries (macedonia, montenegro, bosnia, croatia, albania) and for the regional countries (slovenia, bugaria, romania, greece). where does your interest lie? Recognition of K and its 1.4M person market or solidarity with S and it's soon to be 10M person market? pls decide wisely.

2. to the countries of the west. is kosovo indep so essential to you that you risk "throwing out the baby with the bath water?" pls consider wisely. what is more impt to you partnership with serbia or a partnership with kosovo? pls answer wisely and consider the future of n. mitrovica and republika srpska.

3. to nato. all deals have termination agreements built into them. think wisely about your lack of transport from north to south (down corridor 10). is it worth it to you?

4. to investors who are already in the serbian market: kindly re-inform your ambassadors of your future plans. be not bashful, we all know business determines politics and not the other way around. Money makes the world go around. Not diplomats.

5. to foreign direct investors seeking access to the upcoming large privatizations (the multi-billion dollar ones that really matter) such as phone, corridor 10, cable-tv, theaters, agriculture, metalurgy, and others). pls inform your ambassadors of your current tender proposals. i speak mainly of austria, greece, italy, hungary, and germany. for example: should one of you recognize K, the others may not... leading to loss of a deal for you. do not be shy, we all know business determines politics and not the other way around. Money makes the world go around. Not diplomats.

6. to DS and the other democratic parties. please find some backbone. you have better cards in your hand than you think. Step back into place.

7. to the radicals. pls be prepared to purge your platform of anything offensive or anti-growth; be prepared to publicly abandon seselj; and be prepared to very quickly become very good capitalists.

8. to the serbs of north kosovo. be prepared to "declare independence from independence." you don't need the world's recognition you only need to squat where you are and do nothing. No one dare push you out.

9. to RS: be prepared erase the border between serbia and RS.

10. to the media: is he bluffing or is he for real? Debate it amongst yoursleves.

11. to the good people of kosovo. Be prepared for more delays. It will take months to sort this out. you guys really deserve a better life and I really do hope you get it. You have been thru far too much mistreatement in recent history (from serbs mostly... and secondarily from your own leadership). no one should have to go thru that. You need to negotiate a viable future for yourselves. Not a future that antagonizes serbia and which will lead you to yet new hardships. good luck!

These 2 parties should immediately merge and take a good first step in reducing the Balkanization of the Serbian body politic.Serbia will do much better with only 2 or 3 major parties negotiating in Parliament.

Man, the world is shaking from this decision. What is the rest of the world going to do when Serbia is going to cut their power supply.
Maybe the new serbian goverment is going to embargo the world.
Come on, be serious.

I dont understand why serbs overestimate thier possibilities. Why is it so important for Kosova to reach northern europe through Serbia?
There are so many ways to go there. All of neighbouring countries, support Kosova's independence for a reason. They dont like Serbia.
There is a highway that they just started to bulid fom Port of Durres to Kosova. You will be from Prishtina to Durres for 3 hrs. and after that the world is yours. Montenegro also will be very happy to help.
Is it Serbia going to isolate herself from all Albanian, Monenegrin, Croatian and Slovenian ports, because all those countries, support independence for Kosova?
Well, that would be really benefitial for serbs.

To concerned:
1. CEFTA countries are (Albania 3.781.922 Albanians, Macedonia 40% Albanians, Kosova 2.400.000 people (600.000 in western countries) with 100.000 Kosovar Serb's, Montenegro 16% Albanians + (120.000 in USA), Serbia with Presheva Valley, Bosnia and Croatia).
2. Partnership why western countries have to choice? Typically Serbian nationalistic way of thinking! But if they have to choice of course is Albania because very soon Albanians will represent many countries in the region (Albania, Kosova, Macedonia and Montenegro).
3. NATO: BONDSTEL in Kosova is biggest Nato base in the region + Corridor (Germany - Rumania – Bulgaria), Albanian Adriatic & Jon sea AMBO project signed today etc.
4. To the Investitors, Kosova is richest with resources in the region USA & Uk & France… they already make a choice.
5. Foreign direct investment (FDI) is defined as a long-term investment: Facts about Albania and Serbia:

Al: Population statistics 3.781.922 + Albanian Kosovar's
Sr: Population statistics 6,396,411
Al:
0 -14 years - 25,6 %
15 - 64 years - 65,8 %
older than 65 - 8,6 %
Sr:
0 - 14 years - 14,1 %
15 - 64 years - 46,9 %
older than 65 - 39 %

Al: GDP (purchasing power parity): $20.21 billion note: Albania has a large gray economy that may be as large as 50% of official GDP (2006 est.)
Sr: GDP (purchasing power parity): $33.83 billion
Al: GDP (official exchange rate): $9.306 billion (2006 est.)
Sr: GDP (official exchange rate): $15.19 billion
Al: GDP - real growth rate: 5% (2006 est.)
Sr: GDP - real growth rate: 3.9% (2005 est.)
Al: GDP - per capita (PPP): $5,600 (2006 est.)
Sr: GDP - per capita (PPP): $3,400 (2005 est.)
Al: Labor force: 1.09 million (not including 352,000 emigrant workers) (2004 est.)
Sr: Labor force: 1.61 million for Serbia (2002 est.)
Al: Unemployment rate: 14.3%
Sr: Unemployment rate: 31.6%
Al: Population below poverty line: 25% (2004 est.)
Sr: Population below poverty line: 30%
Al: Inflation rate (consumer prices): 2.8% (2006 est.)
Sr: Inflation rate (consumer prices): 15.5% (2005 est.)
Al: Investment (gross fixed): 24.5% of GDP (2006 est.)
Sr: Investment (gross fixed): 14.2% of GDP (2005 est.)
Al: Oil - proved reserves: 585.5 million bbl (1 January 2002)
Sr: Oil - proved reserves: 38.75 million bbl (1 January 2002)
Al: Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: $2.621 billion (2006 est.)
Sr: Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: $5.35 billion (2005 est.)
Al: Debt - external: $1.55 billion (2004)
Sr: Debt - external: $15.43 billion

6. Internal affairs as a neighbor No comment
7. Idem
8. To the Kosovar Serbs you have to choose between your country Kosova and build together with Albanians your future or to choose hate and misery and you know where it takes.
9. Internal affairs as a neighbor No comment.
10. To media and specially to B92: I hope that after Independence we Albanians are welcome in this site B92 and change our views with Serbian Democrats for the better life.
11. To Albanians Forgive but never forget what happened to our Nation in the past decades.

Jarni get your fact strait

Serbia's GDP growth is 6.4% this YEARS not 2005!

Second all major roads from Kosovo go through Serbia!

Second Kosovo does not have that many resources as you might think.

Albanian highway with Kosovo? HAHA ya good place to get mugged on...

Serbia's market is higher than ALbania can ever hope to be

UNemploymenr rate? ya check this out from CIA website!

Albania-14.3% official rate, but may exceed 30% due to preponderance of near-subsistence farming

Serbia-31.6%
note: unemployment is approximately 50% in Kosovo

SO where did you get your facts!??

Albanians will represent major part of region? no I am afraid they wont actually.

OH and check the population levels of SERBS in the region as well as the world!!

Serbia is more stable economically,politically than Albania. Albania is the poorest country in Europe as well has the most crime and corruption with least human rights. The Albania mafia is the biggest in the world.....there's some national pride for you.

Hermon
Montenegro is much closer to Serbia more than half of Monte;s consider them selfs Serbs! FYROM KNOW'S what Serbia has gone through 2001 ring a bell? and are scared to death to anger the "poor" Albanians! Face it neither Bosnia or Croatia or any other Balkan country CARE either way!

from them its a "What ever" situation, non of them have openly said they support it.

Blag, you've done your best. as i said earlier you just happened to be on the wrong side of the fence that's all.

I think you're last comment should be posted once the independence is granted, hopefully very soon and congratulate your counterpart commentators. Us the pro-independence side. We’ve tried to be as rational as possible.

I understand that you have kids and wish you and your family all the best .

Hopefully our kids we’ll be able to promote peace and partnership in our big mansion THE EU.

I have no idea where the last person has their facts from, but by the IMF statistics, Serbia has a GDP per capita of $5700, not 3400 and a GDP of $47.77 Billion (not 33billion). Get your facts sorted, Serbias economy is much more dynamic and stronger than that of Albania!
(sources: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2006/02/data/weorept.aspx?sy=2003&ey=2007&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=965&s=NGDPD%2CNGDPDPC%2CPPPWGT%2CPPPPC&grp=0&a=&pr1.x=85&pr1.y=3)

"Oil - proved reserves:
585.5 million bbl (1 January 2002)."

Uh, no. Looks like a typo (please post the link in future (i.e. https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/print/al.html)
Oil - proved reserves:
185.5 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Some of the figures include Montenegro too.

As for a straight comparison, they do not represent the whole story and is in reality of little value. Also it should be remembered that Serbia (along with Montenegro) was under sanctions for over a decade. Apples and pears.

Level of education & intellectual captial counts for a lot, as long as skilled workers. Serbia has much better infrastructure and is by far the main route for trade through the Balkans (rail, road) and has many more developed industries.

LOL, Albania cut a deal with China and they totally tricked u guys over your country went bankrupt because of pyramid scheme of investments. You said the Durees to Pristina highway that will take about 10 years to build you have to add in the delays during the winter. Currently you have to buy power from Kosovo to keep the lights on and since Block B is down now they cannot export electricity and have to get it from SERBIA because Bulgaria's plants are off line for maintenance. I laugh sometimes at the post people make. On Friday when the proposal is made public two things will happen 1. Riots in Kosovo will break out NATO will use necessary force to quell the riots, place a curfew on problem areas deploy troops to protect historical and cultrual sights and various other measure. Past events are lessons learned don't think since groups are protesting that it will be allowed for people to go crazy and do as they please. 2. Maybe we have learned from 2004 that violence and the threat of violence does not solve anything but push back status. Blame yourself and stupid people who thing the world is not watching what is going on.

It seems that the cards that Serbian politicians like to shuffle come from a very very thin deck. Just before Rambouillet, Milosevic organized a referendum that declared Kosova an internal affair. The IC simply brushed it aside and went ahead to organize the talks; amazingly Yugoslavia participated, regardless of what the voters had voted in that referendum. Just before the bombing, Yugoslavia threatened that it will cut ties with every country participating in the campaign. It broke off diplomatic relationship with US, to no avail; then restored them shortly after. Now again we have the same referendum, and the same threats. Deja vu all over again.
I'm looking forward to hear from more mature politicians in Serbia. Like it or not, we will be neighbors for a long time. So lets leave the short-sighted politics aside. Let's recognize and respect each-other. As two neighboring countries, independent and free of each-other. Let's try to cooperate, or at least lets try to have a semblance of normalcy in this neighborhood of ours. The job of the politicians is to make peoples life easier not more difficult.

What's your point Jarina. You're comparing Albania's statistics from 2006 to Serbia's statistics from 2005. That doesn't make sense. You shouldn't assume people who visit this site cannot realise this.

I'm a little confused. Are you from Albania or Kosovo?

Sounds to me like you're a supporter of Greater Albania, yet you're probably one of those people who accuses Serbs of trying to create a Greater Serbia.

Wow.. I am impressed with you blag… Go ahead – block all the rest of the world, let them feel what does mean when Serbia gets angry… come on be serious blag… don’t imagine Serbia as a super power… in contrary it is powerless comparing to the Balkan countries let aside the west Europe and USA etc etc…

Blag,

I do hope that you have not posted your last comment but understand maybe the break in posting. I guess you might be back when we have some developments mirroring certain aspects that you have portrayed in the last post. Till then I will remind others of your last post every so often. For now I wish you god speed and all the best.

To concerned:
5. Al: Oil - proved reserves: 585.5 million bbl (1 January 2002)

We are now 1 February 2007 and Albania is not stopped in the myths but they worked hard and they signed some major contracts with the western companies in Oil researches.

a) Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: OXY) announced that a group led by its subsidiary Occidental of Albania Ltd. has signed production-sharing contracts with the National Petroleum Agency of Albania for three blocks covering more than 1.1 million acres, according to PR Newswire. Blocks A, 2 and 3 are located within the eastern portion of an onshore fold and thrust belt where more than 500 million barrels of oil and 1 trillion cubic feet of gas have been discovered.

b) MedOil, a London-based oil and gas exploration company, plans to search for oil in the Ionian and Adriatic Seas. An agreement signed this month by Albanian Minister of Economy, Trade and Energy Genc Ruli and Executive Director of MedOil Joseph McKniff provides for three phases of searches within seven years at a cost of 20.3m euros.
MedOil -- which focuses mainly on exploration in Southern Europe -- is allowed to work within the so called 'Joni-5' offshore, approximately 2,500 sq km of seafloor off southern Albania extending to the northern boundary of Greece.
The agreement will be presented for ratification by the Council of Ministers, which the directors expect to take place in late October 2006 (all ready Signed).
Chief Executive David Thomas, commenting on the agreement with the Albanian government, said: "We are pleased to have been awarded this highly prospective offshore permit, where three hydrocarbon plays are identified in the block, all with successful analogues in the Adriatic region."
"A number of leads and prospects have already been mapped using the existing 2-D seismic data," he added.
The British company will carry out exploration in three stages in the Ionian Sea from the Karaburun Peninsula to the southernmost town of Saranda, and in the Durres area in the Adriatic Sea.
"The first one will last two years, the second three years and the last one will last two more years. The contract, in cases when there are discoveries of new sources, will be 20 years. The ministry has made its research on the free exploration areas for oil, petrol and gas in the sea and Earth and now it is promoting them to the international companies," Ruli explained.
According to experts, the restart of the exploration missions signals good prospects for the discovery of hydrocarbons thrust belt where more than 1.2 billion barrels of oil . They also say that this initiative will attract more foreign companies to Albania (only 20 % of Albanian territory prospected).

Today researches in Albania cover 82 places and many of them Oil is founded…
23 Western and some Arabic Oil companies are waiting for the right to make researches in Jon Sea and Adriatic sea.
Should I go one about Albanian Oil???...

GDP for Serbia,
CIA site is not updated for Serbia I don’t know the reason! But if we take Albania GDP the same year 2005 study says: Albania is in any level more attractive then Serbia or other countries in the region...
Today we learned from Serbian bank that Serbia’s 2006 deficit is 5.36 billion €, 11% higher deficit than in 2005, I’m not pleased for this bad economic news only those people with the dark heart are pleased when a neighbors is not going well.

CIA page says 185 million. None of your other sources states 585 million.

1st link that you didn't bother to post, here dated 1998: http://www.hri.org/cgi-bin/brief?/news/balkans/albatim/last/98-01-19.albatim.html

According to the Oxy website (http://www.oxy.com/oil_gas/world_ops/where_we_operate.htm) there is no reference to Albania.

Second source (MedOil): http://www.medoilplc.com/index.asp?id=120
Funnily enough, no mention of 1.5 billion bbl by the people who should know, only unnamed 'experts'. Where are the big players like BP, Exxon etc.?

Even if this was true, then countering in the cost of extracting the oil, it may well not make economic sense nor provide substantial cash directly to Albania. Also add that extraction of said oil would be a number of years from now.

If that is all you can produce, then it very much looks like you are grasping at straws. You are wasting time comparing Serbia and Albania's economy, and for what purpose?

P.S. Germany has just announced it was shutting down it's last thermal power station station. So who is going to buy Albania's lignite (with a high content of 3% sulfur)?

The future is nuclear, even if it is only to produce hydrogen.

Please don't post anything without a link and that is also not the same rehashed information from a sole source.

One should bear in mind that Serbia's statistics reflect 15 years of war, 8 years of sanctions and 3 months of intensive bombing that crippled a significant portion of its infrastructure.

Therefore, the most disturbing statistic in this mess is why have the others countries of the region not surpassed the economic levbel of serbia? If this is the best you can show considering the obstacles Serbia had before it, it's not a very impressive show at all.

For confirmation, Foreign Direct Investment Magazine's website placed Serbia at #1 place of potential for 2006. Albania did not show up on the list.

"...the most disturbing statistic in this mess is why have the others countries of the region not surpassed the economic level of serbia? ..."

Indeed, but it would not really be fair to compare Serbia or the other parts of the former SFRY to Romania, Bulgaria et al. The SFRY was never part of the Soviet Union and had a mixed and quite diverse economy. Private companies of up to 20 persons (I might be slightly off here) were allowed, so there was a lot of small business going on. There was good money to be made if you were enterprising enough.

So, the other states were starting from much further back. Add the fact that sanctions against Serbia & Montenegro significantly impacted on the whole balkan economy and turned it into a state that relied on smuggling supplies, whether oil by underground pipeline from albania, or black market petrol and other goods from Bulgaria, Romania and to a lesser extent Hungary. That helped to perpetuate the grey/black economies throughout the Balkans.

Just imagine, if the EU hadn't stabbed the SFRY in the back and thrown international law to the wind, it would have long have joined the EU! Pity the EU wasn't interested in the 'barbarians' from the balkans at the time...