Macedonia to buy 84 buses from Lviv’s LAZ

Skopje, capital of the Balkan country of Macedonia, has inked a 10 million euro contact to purchase 84 buses from LAZ, the Ukrainian bus factory based in Lviv, western Ukraine.

LAZ officials are dubbing the contract as a major success for their factory. In Soviet days, LAZ was one of Europe’s largest bus factories. But the factory has struggled to land orders since Ukraine declared independence. LAZ won the contract via a tender, results of which were revealed on Jan. 31 during a visit to Lviv by top officials from Macedonia. During the visit, Mile Janasievski (above), Macedonia’s transportation minister, test drove a LAZ bus. Plans envision that the buses will be delivered to Macedonia this and next year. Macedonian officials are also mulling the purchase of trolley buses produced by LAZ. Officials at LAZ, itself owned by Russian businessman Ihor Churkin, praised the Macedonian contract, and predicted that it will help preserve 100,000 jobs at the plant. “This offers a real chance for the Ukrainian engineering sector to come out of the economic recession,” LAZ said in a statement.