Agriculture and Livestock Breeding
Agriculture and Livestock Breeding
The natural advantages which Macedonia has (fertile soil and a favorable climate) have facilitated the development of agriculture. The total agricultural area is about 1,320,000 hectares, of which 667,000 hectares are arable land. Since the Second World War, viticulture has undergone extensive development: its areas have increased by 211%, while areas under orchards are 60% larger.
Macedonia is a well-known producer of tobacco, rice, grapes, fruit and vegetables.
About 70% of the land and 90% of livestock are in the private sector.
The largest Macedonian granaries are the Pelagonija and Ovche Pole plains. The average wheat produce is now 3,000 kilograms per hectare, which is three times greater than the 1951 produce, which was only 980 kilograms per hectare. Produce parameters in the other types of cereals are similar. This is a result of the modernization of production and the application of the most up-to-date agricultural and technological methods. In 1954, for example, there were only 362 tractors in Macedonia, while their number today is about 45,000. Water improvement systems have been built for the irrigation of about 140,000 hectares of land, which is over 22% of the total arable land in the Republic.
Significant progress has also been made in the production of vegetables. Macedonia has been using its comparative vantages more and more efficiently. Less than 20 years ago, in 1975, there were only 48 hectares of land under glass or plastic sheeting, whereas that area today is 265 hectares. Early tomatoes are grown on about half of the area. The production of cucumbers, peppers and some other vegetables has been rising.
In any Macedonian family, known for hospitality and cordiality, the host will offer you a first-class domestic wine or brandy at the dining table. Every year, about 300,000 tons of grapes are gathered from Macedonian vineyards. These are processed in 13 wine cellars with a capacity of 220,000 tons of wine. The Tikvesh vineyard region is the largest and the best known in Macedonia. Excellent apples and other kinds of fruit are produced in the Prespa and Polog regions.
Livestock breeding has existed here from the earliest of times. Cattle of the busha breed and some species of sheep ('pramenka' and 'balkanska koza'), dating from as early as the time of Roman domination, are still bred in Macedonia - of course under the fundamentally changed conditions of modern farming. The livestock of the Republic includes nearly 300,000 head of cattle, 2,500,000 sheep, 150,000 goats, 65,000 horses and 170,000 pigs. There are more than 5,000,000 poultry and about 80,000 beehives. They produce each year about 180 million liters of milk, 38,000 tons of meat, 2,500 tons of wool, some 140 million eggs and about 800 tons of honey.
Macedonian lakes are rich in fish Some 2,000 tons of fish are caught there each year, and the best among them is the renowned Ohrid trout.
The Government has demonstrated its concern for the development and promotion of agriculture by providing subsidies for innovations in production. In all the municipalities of the Republic there are active centers for the promotion of individual agriculture. In the area of agriculture, there are about 2,000 specialists with university or college qualifications and about the same number of agricultural technicians. About 120 doctors of agricultural sciences are involved in scientific, scholarly, research, educational and production activities in this field.
Electricity Production and Distribution
At the end of the Second World War, Macedonia had only one power plant - the 'Matka' hydroelectric power station near Skopje. A large number of populated areas had no electricity. They were far away from the privileges of civilization in the mid-20th century.
The situation today has been fundamentally changed. With tremendous energy and effort, many new sources of electric power have been constructed: the 'Mavrovo' hydroelectric powerstation system, as well as the hydroelectric power stations of Globochica, Spilie, Tikvesh and Zrnovka. Three blocks of thermoelectric power stations have been constructed near Bitola, and one in Oslomej, in the vicinity of Kichevo, as well as the Negotino thermoelectric power station.
The present capacity of electric energy sources in Macedonia is 1,430 MW, which largely satisfies the requirements of the Republic. The transmission and distribution network is fairly well developed.
There is a refinery for the processing of 2.5 million tons of crude oil, as well as mines for the production of 7.5 million tons of coal. Work has been under way on the construction of a gas pipeline which will make it possible to include the use of natural gas in the energy system of the Republic. Preparations for the construction of new electric energy facilities are in their final stage, which will make better use of Macedonia's water potential. In those places where it is possible, thermal water and solar energy are increasingly used.
Industry
Following the Second World War, the Republic of Macedonia was an undeveloped agrarian area with an undeveloped economy dominated by agricultural and handicraft production. Since then, a fundamental transformation in the economy's structure has been carried out. The share of industry in the creation of the social product grew from 15% in 1947 to 52% in 1989.
The processing industry, which uses products from the Macedonian area as its raw material base, has undergone extensive development. Macedonia has a number of modern factories for cigarette production, vegetable and fruit canneries, spirits and soft drinks plants, and furniture and ceramics factories.
The numerous textile facilities in Macedonia have been working intensively. In literally every Macedonian municipality there is a textile plant or clothing factory. Most of these are import-dependent, but their production is predominantly export-oriented.
The basic and raw materials industry in the fields of ferrous and nonferrous metallurgy has also experienced a significant development. Several huge facilities have been built: the Skopje Steel Works, which produces raw steel, tinplate and zinc-coated sheeting; a factory for ferrochromium and ferrosilicon in Jegunovce near Tetovo; a lead and zinc smeltery in Veles; a vehicle battery factory in Probishtip, the 'Buchim' copper mine and flotation near Radovish; the 'Feni-Mak' nickel smeltery in Kavadarci, etc.
The outline of Macedonian industry is completed with the metal-processing facilities, machinery production and the electrical industry. Of the facilities in this field we shall mention the factories for machine tools, metal and aluminium profiles, seamed tubing, buses and spare parts for cars, polyester, plastics and detergents, paper, medicines and cosmetics, refrigerators and electrical appliances, transformers and light-bulbs.
The number of industrial units for nonmetal processing is also large; there are factories for the production of cement, china, thermal insulation materials, marble, gypsum products and glass. The timber and leather industries are also well developed.
Macedonia's economy has been undergoing tremendous changes: from operating with socially-owned means of production to operating with assets in mixed or entirely private ownership, from a planned economy to a market-oriented economy, and from a political system under the domination of one political party to a competitive political system of the Western type. A process of transformation of the production structure has begun. In today's industrial production, the complexes for the production of basic metals and equipment, the chemical industry and energy production and distribution are becoming increasingly significant. Yet despite all this, it would still be accurate to say that most of the Macedonian industrial production remains concentrated around basic and raw materials.
Traffic and Communications
The total length of the road network in Macedonia is about 10,000 kilometers, of which 950 km are main roads, 2,800 km regional, and 6,250 local. They carry some 250,000 private registered vehicles, 2,500 buses and 2,000 freight vehicles. Construction work on most of the modern highway running through Macedonia from its northern border with FR Yugoslavia to that in the south with Greece has been completed. There is a large number of active freight companies in Macedonia, most of which enjoy a high international reputation, as their vehicles have been traveling along the roads of Europe and Asia.
The railway network consists of 700 kilometers of railway line, to which some 100 kilometers of industrial track should be added. Some 2.6 million passengers and over 5 million tons of goods are transported by the Macedonian railways. The tracks are suitable for speeds from 60 to 100 kilometers per hour. The 229 km section of the main European railway line which runs through the Republic of Macedonia from Tabanovce to Gevgelija is electrified. Plans are under way to connect Macedonia by rail with Albania to the west and Bulgaria to the east, which would thus link the Adriatic and the Black Sea.
Air traffic operates through the international airports in Skopje and Ohrid, which can receive and service the most modern aircraft. The advantages of this, the swiftest link to Europe and the world, have been enjoyed by more than 400,000 passengers annually, using the services of the five airline companies which currently operate in Macedonia.
The postal system consists of 225 units distributed through-out the Republic. There are about 350,000 telephone subscribers' installations and 1,100 telex installations. There are 161 subscribers per 1,000 inhabitants. Macedonia is connected by automatic telephone and telex links with Europe and the world. Some of these are satellite links.
The most widespread communications are via radio and television, which, as anywhere in the world, have become increasingly important and influential. The largest among these media is the state-owned radio and television network which broadcasts 120 hours of programs daily through its three television and five radio channels. Each municipality has its own local radio station, and some also have television studios. At present there are over 50 radio and television stations operating in Macedonia. The number of private radio and television stations increases virtually every day.
In addition to Macedonian, the Macedonian Radio and Television network also broadcasts programs in Albanian, Turkish, Greek, Bulgarian, Romany and Vlach. In 1967, Skopje Television was the first in the world to broadcast television programs in Albanian. A considerable number of the 370,000 television subscribers have the opportunity to follow some of the satellite services of the world's leading television networks.
A total of 112 newspapers are published in Macedonia. Three of these are dailies and there are over fifteen weeklies. The total annual number of printed copies exceeds 30 million. Although the Macedonian newspaper market is limited and does not offer opportunities for large editions, the number of private newspapers and magazines is constantly rising. In Macedonia there are newspapers in Albanian and Turkish published three times a week, and there are also periodical newspapers in Romany and Vlach.
The computer network of the Republic is linked to the most important databases in the world.
Foreign Trade
The position of Macedonia as an open country is also reflected in the open character and export orientation of its economy. In the field of agriculture, Macedonia exports tobacco, wine, grapes, lamb meat and other products. Macedonia also exports products from the chemical and metal-processing industry as well as textile and leather products. The complete list of all the products which are exported is quite extensive. The largest quantity (57%) of exported goods are highly-processed products. Medium-processed products comprise 39% of the total exports, while only 8% are unprocessed goods. Almost half of Macedonian exports are to the countries of the European Community.
Exports and the growth of export competitiveness is considered to be of exceptional, even decisive, significance in Macedonia and one of the key factors for the development and modernization of the Macedonian economy, as well as for its stable balance of payments. Annual exports from Macedonia amount to over 1.5 billion US dollars.
The Macedonian market is open for the import of various kinds of goods. Of these, 47% are highly-processed products, 25% are medium-processed and 28% unprocessed products. The quantity of imports is approximately the same as that of exports, with a tendency towards a surplus in future foreign trade operations.
A special impetus to foreign trade has recently been provided by the large number of private export-import companies.
Science and Technology
In spite of its relative youth, science in Macedonia has achieved significant results and has become an important development factor.
Scholarly, scientific and research activities are carried out through a widespread network of scholarly and research institutions. The highest and the leading institution of this kind is the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts. The scholarly, scientific and research potential of Macedonia is otherwise concentrated in the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje. In addition, there are 16 autonomous science and research institutions with more than 200 research staff. In 1991 alone, 24 basic and 134 applied scientific research projects were completed. In order to assist development and rationalization, some companies also pay a great deal of attention to scientific research and technological innovation. There are 19 scientific research institutions located here. The number of technological innovations which contribute to making the production process more rational and efficient is high. Such innovations and patents are particularly stimulated. Some of them have been internationally recognized.
Several Macedonian scholarly, scientific and research institutions and individuals have achieved broad international acclaim. The Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology enjoys a very high reputation in the world, and this is also true of the Institute of the Macedonian Language, the scholars in the Department of Macedonian at the Faculty of Philology, and the Macedonian Language, Literature and Culture Seminar, which has been held for over 25 years in Ohrid. The activity of the lectorates in Macedonian at the universities throughout the world is organized through this Seminar. Several clinics of the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje School of Medicine (Orthopaedics, Ophthalmology, Nephrology) and some departments of the School of Agriculture and the School of the Natural Sciences have also achieved outstanding results on a world level.
Keeping abreast of current world developments in knowledge and achievements and their application is, of course, a constituent part of progress in this field. In conditions of financial crisis, Macedonian scholarly and scientific institutions and companies have made tremendous efforts to keep pace with contemporary trends in the world. The main ingredients of a faster technological development lie in the market orientation of the economy. This is the basis upon which the system of acquiring new knowledge, as an indispensable element of development, will be built.
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