1 May 2000
DAILY REVIEW FROM TATARSTAN
KamAZ Trucks To Be Assembled In Ethiopia
The assembly of KamAZ trucks will begin in Ethiopia early this month, the press center of the truck concern reported on 29 April. Ethiopian officials are expected to participate in the inauguration ceremony. A KamAZ delegation will reportedly be headed by General Manager Ivan Kostin. Last year, KamAZ and its distributor in Eastern and Central Africa, the Mesfin company, signed a licensing agreement on the assembly of KamAZ trucks on Ethiopian territory. Since the beginning of this year, KamAZ delivered 120 assembly sets and engines to Africa. More than 500 automobiles are scheduled to be assembled in 2000. Over the last four years, KamAZ sold some 700 trucks in Africa.
Tatarstan Setting Up Treasury
Tatar President Mintimer Shaimiev convened a meeting of the heads of local administrations and government members to analyze progress toward setting up a treasury system, Tatar-inform reported on 28 April. Shaimiev told the press after the meeting that process of switching to the treasury system is half complete. Heads of local authority bodies oppose the treasury system since it deprives them of the control over financial resources. It was reported at the meeting that owing to the advantages of the new system, 90 percent of budget revenues have been in cash so far this year compared with 62 percent in the same period of last year. Since the beginning of this year, some 6.5 million rubles were saved by the Expertise Department of the Treasury.
Communists Celebrate May Day
Tatarstan's branch of the Russian Communist Party and the independent Communist (Bolsheviks) Party of the Tatarstan Republic held meetings and demonstrations in Kazan on 1 May devoted to the Day of the Working People International Solidarity. A march was scheduled to end with the laying of a wreath at the Vladimir Lenin monument. Tatarstan's trade unions also organized a meeting on the same day to demand wage hikes, an increase in the minimum wage and pensions, and the creation of new jobs.
Outbreak Of Intestinal Infection In Tuben Kama
Some 400 pupils at a gymnasium in Tuben Kama have fallen ill with an intestinal infection, Tatar media reported on 29 April. Forty-three have been hospitalized, almost all of them in a grave condition. According to epidemiologists, the outbreak of the disease is connected with the poor quality of drinking water. The rate of intestinal infection in Tuben Kama is 1.5 times higher than in the republic as a whole. There have been several outbreaks of intestinal infection in Tatarstan in the past several years, the most widespread being in 1995, when more than 1,000 people fell sick.
Compiled by Gulnara Khasanova