In Brief
EU Parliament committee to examine Papademos BRUSSELS – European Central Bank Vice President nominee Lucas Papademos will be examined by the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (EMAC) on April 22, the Parliament said yesterday. EU foreign ministers on Monday unanimously approved the Greek central bank governor, who was picked last week by finance ministers to succeed Christian Noyer when he steps down at the end of May. The committee will vote on the issue on Tuesday, April 23. The committee’s recommendation will go to a plenary session of the European Parliament for a further vote on May 14. Parliament’s recommendation, as well as the ECB Governing Council’s opinion, will then be sent for final confirmation to the EU leaders. (Reuters) Moody’s to leave Greece’s rating unchanged If there is a change in Greece’s credit rating now, it will be upped but it is likely to be delayed depending on privatizations, according to statements to Kathimerini by David Levy, head of Moody’s Sovereign Risk Unit. The agency will issue its annual report on the Greek economy this or next week, leaving unchanged its current A2 rating and the terming of prospects as «stable,» Levy said. Sources of concern are the fiscal situation, particularly as regards public debt – already high in relation to GDP – which has now stopped declining, competitiveness and the slow progress of privatizations. Levy said the situation regarding social security would affect the credit rating of countries after five years and only if there is no reform. Altec gets Romanian contract IT firm Altec said yesterday it had won a 55.2-million-euro international tender to plan and install a computer system for Romania’s state-run oil firm Petrom. Altec said the contract was one of the biggest IT jobs in southeast Europe, with completion due in 20 months. The project will be carried out by Altec’s Romanian subsidiary Sysware Romania SRL, which will also provide support services for three years. (Reuters) Softex Fidelity Corporation, which is 49-percent owned by US-based Goldman Sachs investment bank, has submitted a 45-million-euro offer to buy Athens Paper Mill’s (Softex) northern Greek plant in Drama, with a guarantee to maintain all 400 existing jobs, local prefecture officials said yesterday. A current three-year contract with Italian investors expires at the end of June. Philoxenia-EMITT Philoxenia tourism exhibition and Turkey’s EMITT counterpart organization have renewed their agreement to exchange exhibition areas in their next events, according to a Helexpo statement yesterday. During EMITT’s event in Istanbul April 3-7, Helexpo officials registered strong interest by Turkish tourism firms to participate in the next Philoxenia, October 31-November 3, 2002, the statement said. Ferries Blue Star Ferries yesterday announced it has taken delivery of Blue Star Paros from Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding Co. and plans to deploy it on the Piraeus-Paros-Naxos-Santorini route in May. The new vessel can carry 1,500 passengers and 240 private cars and has a speed potential of 26 knots. A second vessel, Blue Star Naxos, will be delivered and deployed on Cycladic routes in June. Flights Aegean Cronus yesterday announced three flights a day from Athens to Myconos as of April 19 and four flights weekly from Thessaloniki to Myconos as of June 14.
