Today's sitting of the cabinet decided to recommend that Parliament okay multinational military exercises in Bulgarian territorial waters in the Black Sea to be held within the Partnership for Peace (PfP) plan under the code name Cooperative Partner-95. Deputy Defence Minister Vladimir Penchev told journalists the exercises will include evacuation of civilians in the Bourgas region, on the Black Sea. Cooperative Partner-95, due on September 11 through 16, is being organized by NATO Headquarters Allied Forces Southern Europe. The cabinet will also ask Parliament's consent for the participation of a 66- strong company of the Bulgarian Armed Forces in multinational military exercises to practice relief operations due on May 22-27 in Greece. The General Staff have received an invitation for participation in the exercises from Greek Chief of Staff Admiral Hristos Limberis. The exercises, codenamed New Spirit, will gather military of Greece, the US, Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.
The amendments to the Land Act passed on April 14 after a motion of the Bulgarian Socialist Party and its coalition partners, have not taken effect and all attempts to apply them in advance are illegal. This was part of President Zhelyu Zhelev's statement broadcast by the National Radio and Television this evening. President Zhelev said that meeting with him this week, all opposition forces in Parliament demanded that the amendments be returned for further deliberations. Under the Constitution, the Head of State has the right to use a suspensory veto. The President also said that he, too, has principle objections and is determined to return the amendments. In case they pass for a second time, Dr. Zhelev will approach the Constitutional Court to rule on the matter, the statement went. "The amended Land Act conflicts the essence of democratic changes in Bulgaria. The question about the land is not a partisan one: it is a national question and should be addressed with wisdom and consensus," Dr. Zhelev said further. The amended Land Act is the fourth law to be vetoed by Dr. Zhelev and the first one prompting a presidential statement.
In a televised statement tonight Agriculture Minister Vassil Chichibaba said that a delay in the enforcement of the amendments to the Land Act would further aggravate the crisis in Bulgarian agriculture. He called the allegations that the amendments to the act deprive private owners of their ownership rights "empty talk". In its previous form the Land Act actually blocked the land reform, the Agriculture Minister said. He said that the losses incurred by the liquidation councils (set up to return the land to its pre-communist owners) amount to 180,000 million leva (1 USD = 65.104 leva). Three years and 3,000 million leva sufficed to return only 38% of the land and it is difficult to predict how many years the restitution of the remaining land would take, Chichibaba added.
The anti-Semitic slogans on the walls of the Synagogue and Jewish school in Sofia are a work of a small group and the Bulgarian public firmly condemns such acts, President Zhelyu Zhelev told the Israeli MPs visiting this country. The Bulgarian President today received the delegation headed by Emanuel Zissman, chairman of the Israel- Bulgaria Friendship Group in the Israeli Knesset. The Israeli MPs wanted to hear Dr. Zhelev's personal stand on the manifestations of anti- Semitism in Bulgaria, said Presidential Advisor Georgi Georgiev-Gesh. "We are a tolerant nation, but just like everywhere in Europe, there are similar acts by marginal groups," Dr. Zhelev is quoted as saying. The leader of the Israeli parliamentary delegation told the Bulgarian President that a ceremony due in several months' time a forest in Israel will be named Bulgaria as a token of gratitude for the deliverance of Bulgarian Jews during World War Two. The sides were unanimous that the Bulgarian-Israeli relations are making a progress but there is much more to be done in bilateral cooperation, said Georgi Georgiev-Gesh.
President Zhelyu Zhelev today cabled his condolences to U.S. President Bill Clinton for the bombing in Oklahoma City. The telegram reads: "On behalf of the Bulgarian people and on my own behalf, I would like to express my most sincere condolences for the innocent victims of the criminal terrorist act in Oklahoma City."
WITH THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN INITIATIVE IN KRAKOW
Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski will attend the meeting of foreign ministers of the Council for Association with the Central European Initiative in Krakow on April 21, BTA learned from the Foreign Ministry. In 1994 Bulgaria became an associate member of this group for regional cooperation. For Bulgaria multilateral regional cooperation within the Central European Initiative is part of the efforts to build a united Europe, as well as a course complementing Bulgaria's policy aimed at full integration into the European structures, the press release said. The next meeting of the Council for Association is expected to be held at the level of heads of government in Warsaw on October 6.
Today's sitting of the cabinet approved a draft decree to transform the Foreign Investments Commission with the Council of Ministers into an Interdepartmental Council on Foreign Investments. The decision seeks to coordinate the activities and exchange of information among the various ministries, to improve the cooperation between Bulgarian state institutions and foreign investors and to facilitate the registration of foreign investors' capital in Bulgaria, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development Roumen Gechev told journalists. "It is the cabinet's main objective to promote foreign investments in Bulgaria, which will also facilitate the transfer of technologies, ideas and market shares, and coordinate foreign investments and the cabinet's policy," Gechev said. The newly-set up Council will be headed by Deputy Prime Minister Roumen Gechev. It will be expected to take decisions on licensing foreign investors; to draw up and submit to cabinet foreign investment projects and strategies; to develop national and sectoral programmes to attract foreign investors; to draft laws to regulate foreign nationals' economic activity here and ensure protection for foreign investments; to work out measures to improve the government control over the investment process; to set the guidelines for and adopt annual programmes of the Foreign Investment Agency in the Ministry of Economic Development. Foreign investments to Bulgaria totalled US$ 467,240,789 by December 31, 1994, according to figures of the Ministry of Economic Development publicized at the cabinet press office today. The number of foreign companies registered in this country is quite high but the amount of investments they have made is negligible, said Roumen Gechev. He believes there should be more stringent requirements as regards capital of the foreign company applying for registration. According to him, the bulk of foreign companies in Bulgaria use registration as a legal way to ensure they sojourn here. Figures of the Ministry of Economic Development place Germany atop the list of investors with US$ 178,232,349, ahead of the Netherlands with US$ 57,435,995 and Switzerland with US$ 50,595,871. Greece is the leader in terms of number of direct investments (573 amounting to a total of US$ 33,126,916). Foreign investments in 1994 totalled US$ 198,515,459, higher that the US$ 192,695,812 in 1993, US$ 58,374,057 in 1992 and the US$ 17,655,461 in 1991. Trade seems to attract the highest number of foreign investors with 2,163 investments for a total of US$ 98,843,177. In terms of total amount of investments, however, industry is the leader with US$ 166,548,155. Another US$ 150,350,000 came in investments made under privatization contracts. Indirect investments, for which the Ministry of Economic Development holds only preliminary data, total some US$ 120 million, inclusive of ZUNK and Brady bonds, other securities and foreign nationals' deposits. The total amount of foreign investments - both direct and indirect is set at some US$ 730 million, said the Ministry.
The first debt-for-environment swap, prepared by three Bulgarian cabinets, was effected today. Bulgarian and Swiss officials signed a protocol under which Bulgaria will receive 20 million Swiss francs (equivalent to 1,000 million leva). Thus Switzerland forgives 20 per cent of Bulgaria's debt. The financing, which will be received over four years, will go towards environmental rehabilitation projects, of which there are twenty-four already. The first tranche is due by March 31, 1996. An independent Nature Fund, controlled by the two governments, will be established with some of the money. The protocol was signed by Deputy Finance Minister Svetoslav Gavriyski for Bulgaria and Bernard Herold for Switzerland.
The performance and the state of the Bulgarian economy in 1994 and its projected development in 1995 and 1996 were the topics of a news conference given here today by the chief of the National Statistical Institute (NSI), Prof. Zahari Karamfilov. In 1994 the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) totalled 543,000 million US dollars in current prices which was 1.4% up from 1993. This is the first positive GDP growth registered in Bulgaria since 1989, Prof. Karamfilov said. Services accounted for the greatest share of the gross added value with 52%, followed by the industrial and the agricultural sectors with 36% and 12% respectively. Last year saw a growth in the share of the private sector in forming the GDP, Prof. Karamfilov said. Private sector gross added value amounted to 150,000 million leva, 8.3% up from 1993. Private sector contribution was largest in trade and agriculture. In 1994 industrial output totalled 468,000 million leva in current prices which is 4.5% up from 1993, the NSI chief said. Nine of the total of 18 industrial branches increased their output, the chemical and oil processing industries and ferrous metallurgy marking the highest growth - 35% and 19% respectively. The drop in the output of the food processing industry (7.4%) and of electronics and mechanical engineering (7%) has had a negative impact on overall industrial development. The output of private industrial enterprises increased 3,000 million leva (1.5%) from 1993. The private sector share was largest in the food processing industry which is the result of larger output in plant growing. In 1994 foreign commercial exchange amounted to 441,000 million leva, exports accounting for 225,500 million leva and imports for 215,900 million leva. It was 2.8% down from 1993. For the first time since 1989 Bulgaria's foreign trade balance was positive with a surplus of 9,500 million leva. However, according to Prof. Karamfilov, this is the result of the 14% drop in imports. In 1994 the volume of Bulgarian exports to the CIS remained the same and that for Central and Eastern Europe and the European Union increased. The tendency towards a decrease in the number of unemployed persisted in 1994, the NSI chief said. The depreciation of the real incomes of the population continued in 1994. Over the past four years these decreased almost 2-fold. The NSI projections for 1995 and 1996 are based both on the tendencies which have emerged in this country's socio-economic development and on the expected developments in the economy this year, Prof. Karamfilov said. According to the NSI projections, economic recovery and stabilization will continue. The NSI is expecting a growth in investment, including in foreign investment, and its gradual concentration into technological equipment and production adjustment. New jobs will be opened, and inflation and unemployment will shrink. The statisticians are also expecting a gradual halt in the drop of incomes and activation of internal consumption. For 1995 they project a GDP growth of about 1.5%, which under more favourable conditions could reach 3.5%, and a between 2 and 4% GDP growth for 1996. According to the NSI, the share of the private sector in the GDP will continue to grow and reach between 40% and 42% in 1995 and between 44% and 48% in 1996. The statisticians project an inflation rate of 55- 65% for 1995 and of 40-50% for 1996.
The National Statistical Institute (NSI) projects the April inflation rate at 0.7 per cent, NSI Spokesman Dimiter Fratev told a news conference here today. Inflation in March stood at 3.4 per cent.
The motion to turn what used to be a mausoleum to totalitarian leader Georgi Dimitrov into a memorial to soldiers' glory, introduced in Parliament by Georgi Purvanov MP of the Socialists-led Democratic Left, is a dangerous challenge likely to have unpredictable consequences. This view was voiced by Georgi Markov, chairman of the Suedinenie committee, at a discussion organized by the Centre for Historical and Political Studies. The building is a symbol of the decades of communist rule and has nothing to do with soldiers' glory, reads an address of the Suedinenie committee to President Zhelyu Zhelev.
The United States Administration today donated equipment and consumables worth 100,000 dollars to the Sofia-based Pirogov emergency hospital. The donation became available as a result of the closure of U.S. military bases in Germany. Donations will also be made to the emergency hospitals in Blagoevgrad, Kazanluk, Gabrovo and Pleven. The entire U.S. donation is worth 520,000 dollars.
At today's session of the parliamentary Radio, Television and BTA Committee Evgeni Mihailov of the opposition Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) criticised the information policy of Bulgarian National Television (BNT), speaking on behalf of the sub-committee on the provisional statutes of the National Radio and Television. His criticism drew support from the acting chairperson of this parliamentary committee Klara Marinova of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP). All controversies on the newscasts will be ironed out after the passing of a radio and television act, the policy of the BNT is non-partisan but many MPs are interfering indirectly in the work of its journalists, BNT Director General Boyadjiev said.
There is full consensus among the members of the parliamentary Foreign Policy Committee, that Serbian allegations in Geneva about a Serbian minority in Bulgaria and violations of its rights are absurd, the Committee's Chairman Nikolai Kamov said after a sitting of the Committee today. The Committee judged that there is no reason for Parliament to come out with a special declaration on this issue and believes that the actual purpose of the note moved by the FR of Yugoslavia is to divert attention from the real problems in rump Yugoslavia currently discussed by the international community. On behalf of the opposition, the Committee's deputy chairman, Assen Agov, said that the opposition reserves itself the right to move a draft declaration on the issue for discussion in the plenary chamber.
A group of UDF MPs moved in Parliament today a draft resolution recommending the Cabinet to take the necessary diplomatic and political steps for expressing the will of the public for membership in NATO. The draft resolution will probably be discussed after Parliament's Easter recess.
The Committee of Tourism sold a 29% stake in Balkantourist to its management. The stake is estimated at almost 41 million leva (1 USD = 65.402 leva). Recently Multigroup bought 51% of the shares in Bulgaria's largest tour operator, founded in 1948. Tomorrow the Committee of Tourism is expected to sell the Kopitoto restaurant on Mount Vitosha.
An international symposium on the topic "Black Sea: Naval View'95" will be held from April 26 to 28 at the St.St. Konstantin and Elena resort near Varna. It is organized by the Bulgarian Navy with the assistance of the Atlantic Club in Bulgaria, the local BTA correspondent reported. The main report on the topic "Partnership for Peace and the Role of the Navy" will be read by Rear Admiral Hristo Kontrov, Navy Commander. Commanders and experts of 9 European states and the US have applied for participation, as well as members of the NATO command and of US Fleet Six in the Mediterranean. The forum is expected to be attended by representatives of Bulgarian government institutions.
A two-day conference on the topic "Bulgaria and the Euro- Atlantic Security Structures ended here today". It was organized by the National Association of International Relations. Participants from the opposition and the extraparliamentary forces defended the stand that NATO is the only opportunity for guaranteeing this country's national security. Representatives of the BSP and some political analysts declared themselves for a more cautious approach to Bulgaria's alignment with NATO.
Cooperative farms have sown 68% of the spring crop areas and private farmers only 25%, Deputy Agriculture and Food Processing Minister Maria Lazarova told BTA. Sunflower sowing has advanced most and 65-70% of the fields under wheat and barley have been fed, Lazarova said. The percentage of areas treated with herbicides is also low, Lazarova added.