TRIPOLI (Reuter) - = The ne Libyan e economy. is. 5 showing
signs Of strain as a‘slump in oil exports and Col.. Moam-
mar Khadafy’s costly plan to attain self-sufficiency in a
desert country are taking their toll.

‘Declining oil exports, brought on by the current glut on .

world markets, have slashed Libya’s. annual - reveriue

revenye is not expected to rise above $10 billion this year if
Libya maintains its current production level of 1.1-million
barrels a day.

The country’s total reserves in February 1084 were
estimated at $4.7 billion, down from the September 1983
figure of $5.2 billion.’

Libya is dependent on oil for about 99 per cent of its
development plans, and the reduction in ofl revenue has
forced the introduction of austerity measures that the
Libyans, having reaped the benefits of the oil boom of the

‘1970s, are finding hard to accept,

’ Much of the oil wealth is earmarked for Khadafy’s
mammoth agricultural and irrigation projects by which
he hopes to turn the desert into a giant oasis.

CUT GRANTS

But even funds for ‘those developments have been
slashed because of reduced oi! revenue. In 1964, the third
straight year the allocation was reduced, $6.5 billion was
marked for the projects — an 11-per-cent cut from 1993.

Diplomats said the Mbyans now were _- evading

“paymetts owed dtoreln companies, expecially | the anal
ONeB. st

“Many. companies are having to'run for their money,"
one Western diplomat said. .
In addition to scrapping. some development plans to

“reduce _&xpenditure,.the Libyan: les’ con ress
from -$22 billion in 1981 to less than half that amount. Oil . t ore. 6

(parliament) has cut’ back on imports,

‘The country’s imports in 1984 amounted to $5.6 billion,
down from $7.2 billion in 1982. ‘

There are rows of empty shelves at the gigantic peoples’
supermarkets, where it is possible to see a huge stock of
Danish cheddar cheese one day and yirtually no cheese
the next as people tend fo hoard,

BUTTER RARE .

Butter has been missing from the markets for months

and cucumbers cost more than $7 a kilogram.

One diplomat siad that in addition to the shortage of

money, ‘the scarcity of some products was due-to inef-
ficient distribution and the fact the state-owned ‘super-

‘markels are not.commercially minded.

“Nobody is starving, but the shops are empty,” he said.

Khadafy is credited with having abolished poverty in a
country of three-million inhabitants ond of improving
standards of living with-housing projects, but diplomats
say some of his agricultural policies are rather
unrealistic. ,

German relations thawing out

BONN (AP) — While
US.-Soviet relations
remain in a deep freeze,
those between East and
West. Germany have been
thawing.

Hardly a week has gone
by this spring without
some new inter-German
development — a. new
postal or trade agreement,
a deal to put Western-
made Volkswagen engines

’ in Bast German cars, or

another West ‘German
politician racing across the
border to be photographed
with President Erich
Horecker- of the com-
munist East.

The most dramatic move
hag come from East
Germany, which, after

years of a tight emigration
policy, opened its doors
this year and let out
thousands of East Ger-
mans, many of whom had
asked to leave years ago.

The new push for better
relations seems to he
coming from ‘the East,
with economic need and
political calculation ap-

.-Pearing to be the spurs for

‘kécent overtures, say U.S.
< officials and other experts

sm: ‘Bonn and. Washington. .

‘Germans might also be
trying to act slightly more
independent of Moscow.

“ILseems Honecker may
be trying to develop a new
role as the Soviet Union’s
bridgehead to the West,”
said Angela Stent,
professor of government at
Washington's Georgetown
University and an East
German expert.

“Honecker may he

‘saying: “Listen, you guys,

we.can perform a function
for you by keeping these
channels open.

“I’m sure they're. going
to get something out of it, |
too. The main reason is
clearly economic. Still, you
can’t do something without
thinking about the politic. !

payoff.”
West German
willingness for better

relations has been there
since Willy Brandt, then
the chancellor in Bonn,
developed his Nobel-Prize
winning “Os. politik” of

- rapprochement with the

East in the 1970s.
But after the Brandt
period passed, amny Bonn
overtures to East Ger-.
many were ignored.
GIVEN, LOAN

ead Hee satre 8

‘Some American experts: ..:The gesture that seemed.

paid they suspect the East

to-change that atmosphere

was the decision by
Chancellor Helmut Kohl's
government ‘last year to
back a $400-million bank
credit for East Berlin,
which is $8 billion in debt to
the West and needs to
modernize its industry.
After the loan changed
hands, the East Germans

‘began dismantling some

automatic guns along the

inter-German border,
abolished mandatory
currency exchange

requirements for Western
visitors under 15, and the
two Germanys resumed
lapsed negotiations over
cultural exchanges and
reached a new postal
agreement.

In January, the East
Germans ‘began pouring
aver the border. About
22,460 crossed as of Apri] 24
compared with 11,300 in all
of last year, the. Bonn
government says,

No one in the West knows
exactly when the flow will
step, although officials in
Bonn have said they.do not

‘expect many’ more than

25,000 refugees at this
time.
HAS ADVANTAGES

The reJease.appeared tp,

-be partly.in response to the.

loan, but: there -are other:

“Watchmakers optimistic

BASEL, _ | Switzerland
(Reuter) —. Swiss wat-
chmakers are warily.

optimistic a slump that
almost obliterated ene of
the country’s most im-
portant industries may be
ending.

Traditionally makers of
high-cost quality watches,
the Swiss have suffered
from the relentless on-
slaught of cheap products
coming out of the. Far

East. .

The most dramatic
broadside against - the
Swiss. industry was

launched by Hong Kong,
which ‘in 1983 exported
about 300-million watches
at prices averaging $3.50.
Against’ such com-
petition, Swiss exports
haye slumped and the
number of watch com-
panies has fallen by one-
fifth in three years. :
In 1983, the industry
employed 32,649 people,
compared ° with almost
47,000 in 1980; more than
5,000 peaple from the
secolr are still totally or
partially unemployed..
The crisis point came
last May, when Swit-
‘zerland's two largest
wateh groups, SSIH and
ASUAG, which account for
one-third of the total in-
dustry, faced bankruptcy.
COMPANIES MERGE
ASUAG and SSIH,
makers of the Omega,
Tissot; Longines, Eterna,
Certina and: Rado brands,
have since mérged after a
$300-million bank rescue,

the biggest bailout in ~

Swiss industrial history.

After years of losses, the
group aims to be back in
black figures. by, 1086,

_ reaping the profits of a’

thorough management _
shakeup, streamlined .
production afid’=. :the
elimination of ddplication —
in - research and
marketing.

Latest figures from the
watchmakers’ association,
the Federation .
Horologere, show that
Swiss exports are at last
picking up. Their value in
the first two months of 1984
rose to $220. million, up 12
per cent from the same
perlod last year.

A federationreport said

thal while this is still below

‘the

“he ot

figure for the
corresponding 1981 period,
total exports in 1984 should
be above last yer’s $1.6
billion. Switzerland sold
30.2-million watches and
watch movements abroad

in 1983,
Daniel Kellerhals, a
director at the wat-

chmakers’ federation, said
he's confident about the

* future of. the Swiss. in-

dustry: “There is enough
capital around to
restructure the industry
and we have highly.
developed production
facilities and an extremely
highly qualified labor
force.”

ENTERS MARKET

Federation president °
Andre Margot says he sees
potential for recovery in
new cheap watches
produced here, such as
ASUAG-SSIH’s Swatch
and the M-watch, produced
by the’ private group
Mondaine.

The Swatch was the first
Swiss departure into cheap
electronic watches and
ASUAG-SSIH's _— chief
spokesman, Robert Hussy,
says he's delighted with
the market's ‘response.

“We don't have any sales
problems,” he said. ‘The
enly question we face is

‘are

traditional Swiss elegance,
the appeal of the Swatch is
a garish modernity in
colors even the company’s.
own publicity concedes is.
outrageous.

The Swatch, which sells
at a domestic retail price
of about $20, proved an
unexpected commercial
suecess and Swiss sales
exceeded company targets
threefold in 1883.

SOLD 1.1 MILLION

' Thanks to a marketing
blitz, a total of 1.1 million
were made and sold last
year and the company
expects to more than
double that in 1984.

Looking to the future,
Hussy said three in-
novative products to be
marketed at the start of
1985 are “trumps in the
company's hand.”’ They
controlled by a
microprocessor that
brings the time, date or
day on to a screen at the
touch of a finger:

Riding serenely above -

the storm of industrial
change - are the
acistrocrats of the Swiss
watch industry — luxury
producers housed .in and
around Geneva, . including

whether capacity can Patek Philippe, Vacheron
match demand.” Constantin, Piaget, and
Deliberatell shunning Audemars Piguet.
‘Terminal 5 Express
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incident on the
. German ;
.Teverse the entire recent:.- -
improvement in -goedwill..--- -

advantages to Honecker,
U.S. sources said. .
Letting out people who

do not want lo live in East ©

Germany can ease dissent.

‘And it has improved East
Germany:s image on the.
humanitarian level.in West:

Germany and the world at

large. .
Such image-buildig
could help roll out the red

carpet for Honecker when
he makes a planned visit to
west Germany later this

et the experts warn
against. reading too much
in the conciliatory alt-
mosphere.
TREAD SOFTLY

“The East Germans are —

not going to * become
liberals. They are not
going to do samething that
will make the Soviet Union
angry,” said a.U.S. official

in Washington, who spoke -

on condition ‘he remain
anonymous.

“They ‘want to improve
their relations with the
West; they are not Boing
overboard, eo

‘The situation is also
unstable, he added: one
inter-

border could

As for the ‘German
question,” the U.S. experts
agreed the.
reunification will remain a
dead one so long as the
East-West military pact
system divides Europe.

- Moderate improvements
in inter-German relations
don’t change ‘that fact,
although they sometimes
make the rest of the world
nervous, the experts ‘said.

*We are very happy to
@e an area where East-
West relations are im-
proving,” said the U.S.
source in Bonn. ‘But it
does contrast with other
things going on*in East-
West relations.”

L

issue of:

DISC DRUM COMBINATION
BRAKE SERVICE

SERVICE INCLUDES:

* inspection and servicing of entire braking system
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Additional parts extra:

They noied that growing grapes in 2 Libya is proving | :

more éxpensive than importing them from Spain. But
Khadafy ‘insists on achieving his goal of self-sufficiency
and will not serap the project despite the cost.
PURSUES DREAM ~

-In April, Khadafy went a step further ir realizing his
dreani of building a society of. “‘pz:tne-s, not wage
workers'’: he began steps to eradicate -ivi te enterprise.

First hit were pastry shops, rugmauers and artisans
who were forced to close. Barbers and mechanics will be
‘next. :

But this method is not proving to be an efficient alter-

. native as Libyan workers, stripped of any incentive for .

profit-making, are showing less productivity.

The stalls-at the once-bustling Tripoli market, whase.

roads twist from Green Square to the Mediterranean, are
shuttered.

Khadafy has also alienated the educated classes by
ordering.salary cuts in what he claims is an effort to halt
exploitation. A doctor’s monthly salary has been slashed
to $1,162, while a driver earns $1,013. .

STOCKPILE ARMS . .

What ‘makes Khadafy’s economic. policy even more
unpalatable to many Libyans is that despite the dwindling
cash flow, he has not cut military expenditure.

It is not known how much of the general budget of $3.7
billion is allocated for defence. But his involvement in
Chad, estimated by diplomats to be costing billions of
dollars to maintain 5,000 Libyan troops there, is a drain on
the economy.

Khadafy has also been stockpiling advanced weapons at
arate most diplomats see as unrealistic because his army
is incapable of absorbing them. He is known to. be’
fascinated by submarines, and several hundred Soviet
advisers are accommodated at hotels near Tobruk, where.
there are two submarine bases. — -

The latest Libyan joke has a Libyan worker grumbling

about having to.stand in endless lines for any purchase-

and declaring he wants to kill Khadafy. .
The response: “Go stand in that line over there.”

At
rit

This special Volkswage

—— Sale
at Stewart, B.C. .

—1981 Manco Deluxe 14x70 mobile homes sz,"
—1971 Bendix 12x60 mobile homes $4,500.
-3 bedroom hames from $19,500.

CONTACT

Mr. McLeod 636-2244

‘lands,

DISTRICT OF TERRACE
Heritage and Museums
Advisory Committee

The District of Terrace would appreciate
recelving an Indication from persons interested
Inserving on the Terrace Heritage and Museums
Advisory Commiltee.

The Heritage and Museums Advisory Com-
mittee Is a voluntary Councll appointed agency,
whose function Is to make recommendations to
Council. on such matters respecting designation

. of heritage buildings, structures, and lands, and

the demolijion, preservation, alteration, -or
renovation of those buildings, structures and

All Interested persons are requested to contact
ir. Bob Hallsor, Clerk-Administrajor, District
of Terrace, elther personally at the: Municipal

Office, or by telephoning 635-6311.

price so specicil
out the Toor

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And if includes a number of special extras at a special price.
Things like: a targe rear deck spoiler, power antenna, rear
window wiper/washer, special sport seats, dig ital on-board

computer and colour coor-
dinated bumpers and .
_ mirrors.
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Orit ll fly off —
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~Wolfsbur
_ Limited

ition Scirocco.

Columbia Auto Haus Ltd.

3779 RIVER DRIVE, TERRACE/635-5717

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COAST 10 CGAST WARRANTY COVERAGE.

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