MACEDONIAN NOUVEAUX-RICHES

Subject : nouveaux-riches in macedonia

AIM, Skopje, October 6, 1995

The class of nouveaux-riches in Macedonia originates from the former Communist nomenclature, from the circle of former half-successful entrepreneurs, typical dreamers of the American dream, returnees from abroad, but street pick-pockets and bandits as well.

Macedonian public was not surprised at all when some time ago a local businessman, Amdi Bairam, paid more than ten million German marks for the former (state-owned) "Beko" department store in downtown Skopje. This is the same Bairam who became famous a few years ago for a spectacular wedding of his first-born son at which even aviation was engaged, fortunately, not the air-force. A poor lad from the Gypsy "favellas" in a record time, who started as a street huckster, grew rich by producing large quantities of blue jeans from locally-made denim, and became a millionaire. Instant millionaires appear daily, completely anonymous people buy business premises by auctions at as much as eight thousand marks per square metre. Buyers who have literally snatched the most expensive models of cars from this year's car fair at the same rate underwear is usually sold at sales, probably originate from the same circle. Fuad Amic, representative of VW for South Balkans, claims that Macedonia ranks first among all the former socialist countries according to the number of bought luxury cars. Per capita, of course. The Zivojinovic couple, Brena and Boba, cannot order all the sports' "Mercedes" cars they can sell here. Skopje parking lots are full of "Audi", Lancia", large "Opel Record", "Fords", "BMW" cars and of course, Japanese cars of all existing performances.

Owners of all these cars that any European capital would be proud of, are mostly young people who comfortably leaning back in their cars, communicate by telephone even while driving around, because business, of course, cannot wait. An elegant suit as if just out of a fashion magazine, a gaudy silk tie, a samsonite brief-case, UNPROFOR haircut, indispensable pager or even more often lately a motorolla, define the image of yapi-businessmen who can be seen in Skopje streets. It would be a dangerous mistake though to think another type of young men is less rich. They get out of equally expensive cars in dark blue sweat-suits, white socks and dark brown moccasins, conspicuously decorated with finger-thick necklaces and bracelets made of pure gold.

Naturally, it is all a matter of taste, just like whether they will spend moments of leisure and relaxed meetings with business partners in exclusive cafeterias such as "Paris", "Alexandria", "Dal Fufo", with discreet music interrupted only by characteristics jingling of ice cubes in the beverage from the vicinity of Glasgow, in elite resaurants "Marakana", "Sofka", "Tri bisera", with European menus which lack nothing but quail tongues, or whether they will occasion some of the numerous national restaurants away from the centre of the city, drinking domestic wine in an atmosphere thick with the smell of blazing grills. Somewhere between these two stereotypes of successful business people who are doing their best to be registered as the new social elite, several richest Macedonians stand, who simply have no reason to try to show how rich and powerful they are, because it is self-understood, regardless of what they look like (and they ususally look quite ordinary), what they drive or how they relax in their own hotels, at their own swimming-pools or tennis courts.

Even a hurried inventory of the forms of appearance of the social elite points out to the fact that it is impossible to determine where its members actually come from. From which social layers have they stepped on to the path of their happy future. The time and space, politically and economically defined as transition, accompanied by an unbelievable combination of circumstances (embargo, sanctions) which make this insufficiently defined concept utterly exclusive, made social mobility in this space even more dynamic than it used to be at the time denoted by science as the primitive accumulation of capital. The Macedonian nouveaux-riches were accordingly recruited from among a very wide spectre of social strata, ranging from those who originate from somewhere close to the communist class (the first of the second generation), those from among half-successful entrepreneurs, typical dreamers of the American dream, returnees from abroad, but probably also from among street pick-pockets and bandits who have reregistered their firms in time and changed their professions.

The answer to the question who is at the moment the richest Macedonian is purely rhetoric, because the time we belong to has not determined adequate parametres, but it may be conditionally put anyway - if for nothing else than for the sake of determining which is the most efficient way to get rich. The first to catch attention are those who have acquired their wealth during the somewhat forgotten "Ante Markovic's" privatization, so everyone will say that Ljubisav Ivanov - Yingo is at the top of the rating list, who is a deputy in the parliament, an owner or one of the owners of a widespread retail and wholesale trading network "Silex", department stores, factories, hotels, a football club, a television station and God knows what else. Or perhaps, Velija Ramkovski, owner of the firm "Uniprokom" which is also a chain for selling all sorts of things, but mostly and primarily computer equipment, of a very successful bank, a majority shareholder of the greatest private television in Macedonia, the man who is claimed to have complete control over imports from Turkey, but owns state business deals with that country, too. Privatization counterparts to these two are owners of enterprises which have implemented the latest regulations on property relations or are on their way to do it, primarily Sveto Janevski, the majority owner of Skopje Brewery which does not produce only beer. The man whose fvourite sport is to lend money to the state, Sterjo Nakov, leader of the management team of a very successful "Fersped", transport organization which has in time and quite successfully separated from the ZTO. Sude by side with them are owners of a few firms which have in the past several years simply regenerated when ownership structure was changed in them, and it will never be clarified how the unsuccessful directors have overnight become successful owners and how much effort they had invested to prove economic justification of privatization. Ilija Kamcev, former Director of "Makedonijasport" which is in a hopeless situation, is now making enormous sums of money in the same branch through a firm called "Orkasport", and is at the head of a powerful clan which might be insulted by the fact that it has not been mentioned earlier in this text.

Privatization is, of course, just one of the ways to make a fabulous wealth overnight. In this space, there are numerous other ways, not less efficient. The closed Southern, and especially the Northern border, opened boundless possibilities to men with ideas and good connections. According to official knowledge of the competent international bodies, Macedonia was the transit country over which international sanctions imposed on the SRY have been violated all this time. Only naive would believe that peasants who live by the border have grown rich smuggling oil in metal canisters or tanks of their own cars or tractors. Real business here is sending whole tank trucks with fuel over the border, and there are numerous testimonies about these illegal crossings carried even by local newspapers. Using Macedonia as a transit, Greek goods were constantly taken to "brotherly" Serbia, and all that had to be "covered" somehow. Skopje, but other Macedonian towns too, are full of big and small enterprises or banks with mixed Macedonian and Serb, or Macedonian and Bulgarian capital, which in itself need not necessarily mean anything, but then which may mean a lot. After all, during the summer, the current authorities launched a campaign against corruption and crime, directed primarily against "rascals in our own ranks". This action has not clarified much, but it has certainly indicated a lot.

It is, of course, just a speculation to what extent some persons from political life are involved in the sudden growth of some enterprises and to what extent family ties have been decisive for obtaining export-import permits, concessions for dealing with the state or for using duty-free shops, construction sites, etc. In a comparatively small country such as this, it is hard to find a successful businessman who has no relatives within or close to the authorities. Therefore, rumours about close connections of Stojan Andov, Chairman of the Assembly, with the highly successful "Makpetrol" the very name of which implies the possible sources of its rapid growth, can be kept only on the level of rumours. Just like the possible participation of the Minister of finance Jane Miljovski in the capital which is a catalyst of success of the highly promising Macedonian firm called "Jukan".

Almost at first sight, it is evident that among the most successful people in this country are mostly members of the majority nation. Ethnic Albanians are apparently absent from distribution of the wealth resulted from privatization, for instance. But, it seems that they were "privatized" from the very beginning. Nevertheless, the fact that in Western Macedonia there are a few tens of for the time being anonymous businessmen whose wealth is measured by European parametres cannot be disregarded. They mostly deal with highly profitable transfer of large groups of people, from pilgrimage to Mecca to communication of Kosovo Albanians with Western Europe. "Aborigines" in this space, however, have lately been threatened by a vital Zandjak business lobby whose leaders, brothers Muminovic, are rising on the scale of business success every day, and that of social influence accordingly.

CVETKO STEFANOVSKI