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Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA), 97-01-10Bulgarian Telegraph Agency Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Embassy of Bulgaria <bulgaria@access1.digex.net>EMBASSY OF BULGARIA - WASHINGTON D.C.BTA - BULGARIAN TELEGRAPH AGENCY10 January, 1997CONTENTS
[01] CONSULTATIONS ON NEW GOVERNMENT CONTINUESofia, January 9 (BTA) - We attach great hopes to the candidacy of Nikolai Dobrev for the Prime Minister's office, journalists were told on Thursday by Rossen Karadimov of the Socialists-affiliated Alliance for Social Democracy (ASD). He believes Dobrev's remark that the opposition's protests are justified goes to show the style and method of government of the new prime minister will be totally different from those of his predecessor. Karadimov voiced ASD's expectations that Dobrev's nomination for prime minister will facilitate radical changes in the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP). The ASD representative further described Dobrev as "the strong figure Bulgaria needs at this particular moment".On Thursday the leadership of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) continued its consultations with parties and organizations on the line-up, structure and programme of the future government. Iskra Baeva and Georgi Bozhinov of the BSP Executive Bureau held talks with the leaders of the Will For Bulgaria movement and the Federation of Scientific and Technical Unions (FSTU). Will For Bulgaria leader Yordan Velichkov reportedly said the crisis can be overcome only when the nation pool efforts in a broad government coalition. He also said Will For Bulgaria would back a new Socialist government only after it gets acquainted with its line-up (in which it wants to see highly qualified professionals) and programme. The BSP representatives and FSTU leader Prof. Vladimir Ganovski considered opportunities for cooperation between the government and intellectuals in solving economic problems. FSTU is one of Bulgaria's biggest NGOs with over 50,000 members across the country. [02] OPPOSITION PROTESTS AGAINST SOCIALIST GOVERNMENTSofia, January 9 (BTA) - Bulgaria's opposition continued its protests across the country on Thursday pressing against the formation of a new Socialist government and for early general elections. The protests are organized by the united opposition including the major Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), the Popular Union coalition of Democrats and Agrarians and the ethnic Turks' Movement for Rights and Freedoms.Tomorrow at Parliament we will make a last attempt to stretch out a hand to the Left and if this move is rejected, we will raise our fist, UDF leader Ivan Kostov said at a rally in Sofia. At an extraordinary sitting on Friday Parliament will have a second round of debates on the opposition's declaration for the salvation of Bulgaria that urges the BSP to step down from power and calls for dissolving parliament and holding pre-schedule parliamentary elections. Elections in Bulgaria are due in two years' time. The declaration was introduced at Parliament on January 3 but has not been put to the vote yet. [03] PRESIDENT ZHELEV ON MITTERRANDSofia, January 9 (BTA) - President Francois Mitterrand remains one the most outstanding French statesmen, whose name is associated with a whole era. He is among the founders and architects of a united and democratic Europe, one of the brightest political figures of the 20th century, Bulgarian President Zhelyu Zhelev said in an address commemorating the anniversary of the death of Francois Mitterrand in Paris on Thursday. Mitterrand was a great friend of Bulgaria and his love for Bulgarians was a secret for noone, as was Bulgaria's for him and France, the Bulgarian President also said. Dr. Zhelev participated in a forum on the international activity of the late French president held under the motto "Francois Mitterrand: Peace and Development - Contribution".Mitterrand was the first Head of State of a western country who met Bulgarian opposition leaders before the ouster in late 1989 of communist strongman Todor Zhivkov. The meeting, held at the French Embassy in Sofia on January 19, 1989, came to be known as President Mitterrand's breakfast with the dissidents. Dr. Zhelev said this meeting gave a vital political and moral support for the opposition movement in Bulgaria and provided a strong momentum to NGOs that formed the nucleus of the political opposition in Bulgaria at the time. The breakfast evolved into a traditional event observed annually with or without the participation of Francois Mitterrand, said the Bulgarian President adding in conclusion that it will be only just to say that the late French president became the Godfather of the young Bulgarian democracy. [04] SOCIALIST LEADERS CONFER WITH AMBASSADORSSofia, January 9 (BTA) - The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) can rely on foreign support in case its tenure proves efficient and yields real results, BSP Floor Leader Krassimir Premyanov told journalists Thursday afternoon. Earlier in the day he and BSP Leader Georgi Purvanov had a series of meetings with heads and representatives of nine diplomatic missions in Sofia. Purvanov and Premyanov had talks with the ambassadors of USA Avis Bohlen, of Germany - Peter Metzger, of France - Marcel Tremeau, of Italy - Tomaso Troise, of China - Chen Delai, of Syria - Khouzai Meli and the charge d'affairs of the embassies of Russia - Vladimir Korunchenko, Japan - Takemitsu Korihara and of Great Britain Janet Gunn."We received a well-meant response and I believe that it will set the beginning of a durable and useful dialogue which will be particularly important not only in the conditions of formation of the new government but by the end of our tenure," said Purvanov before the press. "It will be too farfetched to say that at this stage the candidate for prime minister, Nikolai Dobrev, enjoys the support of all with whom we had talks but the hope for his successful tenure was obvious during all meetings," Krassimir Premyanov said. Purvanov noted Ambassador Bohlen's statement that Dobrev has a large political prestige and should take to work promptly and decisively right after the cabinet is set up. Purvanov said all diplomats expressed the opinion that partnership between their countries and Bulgaria should be promoted and that the new Government should adopt a more efficient policy in bilateral relations. The Left's initiative to enlist broader political and public support for the new cabinet provoked keen interest and it may be said that it will win approval, Georgi Purvanov said. He added the idea to recruit for the cabinet experts who are not BSP members was also welcomed. "It was clearly hinted in the progress of the talks that apart from the stated intentions for policymaking and the good ideas it will be equally important to include in the cabinet personalities Europe and the world knows well. In my view we should not remain deaf to such recommendation," Purvanov stated. He said the foreign diplomats approved of the idea that the Civil Alliance for the Republic, led by Alexander Tomov, be represented in the new cabinet. The diplomats showed particular interest in the Left's plans for financial stabilization of the country, the BSP Leader said. Basic issues on the agenda of the talks were when and how will the currency board be introduced in this country, what are the expected difficulties related to its implementation and how can the diplomatic missions here help, Purvanov said. The ambassadors also showed interest in the progress of the structural reform so as to promote the inflow of foreign investments. US Ambassador Bohlen said the moment is very important for Bulgaria and the ideas, voiced by the Socialist Leader, are encouraging, reads a press release of the BSP headquarters. Ambassador Metzger voiced Germany's readiness to exert the necessary expert and political assistance to the implementation of the structural reform, says the press release. The German Ambassador pointed among the untapped potentials intensifying of the dialogue between Bulgaria and the EU countries. Vladimir Korunchenko, Charge d'Affairs of the Russian embassy here, said bilateral relations should be promoted and mutually beneficial important economic projects carried out. In connection with the street pressure that increased in this country in the past few days, French Ambassador Tremeau reportedly assessed the situation in Bulgaria as radically different from that in Serbia. In Tremeau's view the democratic, market reforms in Bulgaria are at a far more advanced and steady stage, reads the BSP press release. Chinese Ambassador here Chen Delai expressed satisfaction with the active bilateral contacts in 1996 and voiced readiness for talks with the new government of the Left for more active cooperation. Takemitsu Korihara, Charge d'Affairs of the Japanese embassy in Sofia, said that if a currency board is established in Bulgaria Japan can play an important role for its successful operation. Italian Ambassador to Bulgaria Tomaso Troise expressed the hope the new cabinet will take prompt and efficient measures for financial stabilization and attract substantial foreign investments, including from Italy. Syrian Ambassador Khouzai Meli said his country is ready to promote and strengthen cooperation with Bulgaria given that considerable success has already been achieved in the field of economy. Janet Gunn, Charge d'Affairs of the British embassy in Sofia, said the embassy and the British Government are ready to support every democratically-elected government and exert technical assistance for real structural changes. She said certain business circles have shown interest in investing in Bulgaria. [05] CABINET APPROVES AMENDMENTS TO CENTRAL BANK ACTSofia, January 9 (BTA) - The outgoing government approved amendments to the National Bank of Bulgaria Act at a closed-door meeting on Thursday. The BNB is this country's central bank. The amendments need to be made in connection with the forthcoming introduction of a currency board which will have to assume some of the functions of the central bank. The bill eliminates the BNB Plenary Council and establishes three departments: a currency issue department, which will perform the functions of a currency board, a banking supervision department and a banking one, outgoing justice minister Mladen Chervenyakov said after the meeting.Under a currency board, the central bank will have limited rights. BNB will no longer trade in government securities and extend unsecured loans to commercial banks. The bank will not be allowed to finance the state and municipal budgets. The central bank will no longer announce exchange rates and the base interest rate, except for reference, Chervenyakov said. BNB is put under the obligation to announce its assets and liabilities on a weekly basis and to publicize its annual financial statement. The bill says that the total amount of credits in the BNB balance sheet must not exceed the leva equivalent of its gross foreign currency reserves. The leva equivalent of the bank's forex reserves is calculated on the basis of the official exchange rate of the lev to the reserve currency to which it is pegged. The total amount of the money owed by the BNB includes all bills and coins issued by the institution and the balances on accounts of other persons, excluding the International Monetary Fund. Under the bill, the new structure will be headed by a board of governors which will include one governor, three under governors and three independent experts. The members of the board will be elected by Parliament on proposals by MPs or the president for a five-year term. The officials of the board of governors may not perform other activities, for remuneration or for free. The term of the incumbent BNB Board of Governors will end when the bill comes into force. Parliament must then elect a new board of governors within a 10-day time limit. [06] CABINET PROPOSES AMENDMENTS TO TAX LAWSSofia, January 9 (BTA) - The outgoing Bulgarian Government approved amendments to four tax laws. These are the Excise Duty Act, the Profits Tax Act, the Taxation Procedures Act and the Aggregate Income Tax Act. The amendments proposed come along with the 1997 budget bill which has already been moved in Parliament. The purpose of the amendments is to provide the revenues set in the budget bill, Deputy Finance Minister Bisser Slavkov said after the Cabinet sitting.An amendment to the Excise Duty Act provides a 50-percent increase of taxes on gambling games. Another amendment allows the Council of Ministry to determine the terms for handling old excise revenue stamps in the trade in alcohol and cigarettes. Under the amendments to the Aggregate Income Tax Act the tax threshold is lifted from 3,500 leva to 7,500 leva. The highest tax set in the law is 44 percent. The amendments also provide reduction of the relative share of taxation: from 18.7 to 18.3 percent in the public sector and from 13.4 to 10.6 percent in the private sector. Under the amendments craftsmen, sole traders, physicians, dentists, owners of private medical laboratories and notaries will be charged with higher taxes in compliance with the 1996 inflation and the projected inflation for 1997. [07] REFORM IN BULGARIA'S HEALTH CARE URGENTLY NEEDEDSofia, January 9 (By Evelina Stefanova of BTA) - In the past few months a number of health establishments in Bulgaria stopped operating over a shortage of medicines. Only urgent operations are performed. Scheduled operations were suspended in many large hospitals as of mid- December 1996. Most patients know that there are no consumables and buy bandages, gauzes, iodine and antibiotics themselves. Life-saving apparatuses are not repaired when broken down for the lack of money. At the Queen Joanna University Hospital the patients have to pay for the anaesthetic drugs for their operations. The personnel of this hospital has to provide the disinfectants on its own. There is a sharp shortage of medicines and consumables even in the Pirogov central Emergency Hospital. Scheduled operations are not performed at the moment, which has not happened since the bombings of Sofia during the Second World War. Large part of the regional hospitals do not operate at full capacity due to the lack of money for electricity. The cases of biting by stray dogs got frequent in the autumn of 1996 and a check by the competent authorities established that there arenít reserves of anti-rabies vaccine.The Bulgarian health system is centralized and is financed under the budget. The budget allocation for health care should be urgently updated, Professor Dimiter Djerov, Rector of the Medical University of Sofia, said in an interview over the national television. In Djerov's view the whole system of financing the health care is essentially wrong and antiquated. "In 1997 the Health Ministry will continue to rely mostly on budget funding, " Health Minister Mimi Vitkova said on TV. She reminded that 70% of Bulgarian health care institutions are financed by municipalities. She said Bulgaria has embarked on the road to a medical insurance system. With 80% of the medicines in Bulgaria imported and the steep fluctuations of the US dollar/lev exchange rate, making preliminary estimates for medical services is a difficult task. Under the current macroeconomic situation, one cannot expect a perfect health care system satisfying both patients and medics. At present, the Health Ministry is doing its best to provide life-saving medicines. The Health Minister pointed that with its national health strategy adopted in 1995, Bulgaria is among the first 6 European countries that has undertaken to develop national environment and health projects. The press and unofficial sources allege that patients pay medics huge amounts of money for services, shich are supposed to be free for the patient. Denying this is a form of corruption, former Pirogov chief says this phenomenon can be curbed only when the deficit disappears. The gross monthly pay of medics in Bulgaria average 42,200-45,150 leva for chiefs of clinics in major health care institutions, 28,000-35,000 leva for chiefs of wards, 19,000-26,000 leva for general practitioners, and 13,000- 18,000 leva for nurses. The Health Minister described as unjustifiable the accusation against the Ministry that medics are badly paid. [08] COST OF LIVING RISES RELENTLESSLYSofia, January 9 (BTA) - The price of bread in Sliven (South Central Bulgaria) will be hiked once every five days because flour has been appreciating daily since the start of the year, the BTA local correspondent reports. Bread is going up in other parts of the country, too. In Sofia, right after New Year bread soared to 150-200 leva/kg from 120 leva.The largest pig breeding unit in Southwestern Bulgaria staggered its customers with even newer pork prices effective January 8, this after a drastic rise on the first business day of 1997, the BTA correspondent in Blagoevgrad reports. Minced meat, which cost 450 leva/kg before New Year, was set at 850 leva on January 3, then and at 1,060 leva on January 8. Cutlets, which cost 700 leva/kg immediately after New Year, hit 1,480 leva on January 8. The Manager of the pigbreeding unit Ivan Bakalski says the new meat prices are normal because the enterprise operated at a loss last year and artificially kept down its prices. Staple foods in Plovdiv (South Central Bulgaria) appreciated by an average 50 per cent in the last twenty days, the BTA local correspondent reports, quoting information released by the local chapter of the Consumers Federation. Steep rises have affected the prices of other staples nationwide as well. Potoatoes, which could be had at some 150 leva/kg before the New Year, are now retailing at 250-350 leva/kg. Dairy products have also skyrocketed. The prices of certain services have also soared. Urban transport fares are up in many parts of the country. In Sofia and another 22 towns, the fare was hiked from 25 to 40 leva. Electricity rose 43 per cent as from January 1. A 40 per cent increase of telephone and postal rates took effect January 7. On January 8, the bureaux de change were buying dollars at 590-615 leva and selling around 630-650 leva. In many retail outlets nationwide, prices are revised almost hourly in line with the cash market rate of the dollar. Only wages and pensions have not budged. By the end of December 1996, the average monthly wage in Bulgaria was 12,290 leva, and the average monthly pension - 5,712 leva. [09] AMOCO DONATES USD 44,000-WORTH OF HUMANITARIAN AIDSofia, January 9 (BTA) - The Amoco Foundation of Amoco Corporation approved four donations, worth a total of more USD 44,000, in humanitarian aid to Bulgaria, Amoco-Bulgaria Company President James Shields told a press conference on Thursday.USD 28,350 of the total amount of the donation will be used to install thermoelectric devices for efficient use of heating in 500 homes in Sofia, Plovdiv (Southern Bulgaria) and Bourgas (on the Black Sea). A separate grant amounting to USD 16,575 was presented to the hospital of Bourgas, to be used for the purchase of medical equipment. In the past few years, the Amoco Foundations donated money to 27 countries in the world. Shields said that today's donation is the biggest in Eastern Europe. [10] BIRTH RATE DROPSSofia, January 9 (BTA) - The birth rate in the first three quarters of 1996 decreased by 5.1% as compared to the January September figure for 1995, BTA learned from Kiril Donkov, head of the Department with the National Statistical Institute. Donkov said that a total of 52,002 children were born in January to September last year. After processing that data for the whole 1996, it may well turn out that this country has surpassed its record of 1995, when it reported the lowest birth rate in Europe. The downward trend in birth rate started in 1990. From 12.1 per 1,000 population reported for that year, the birth rate decreased to 8.6 per 1,000 population in 1995.The 1996 annual mortality rate will be about the same as in 1995. The total number of marriages in the first nine months of 1996 is 25,944, 2,000 down the same figure for 1995.[11] CHIEF STATISTICIAN ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTSofia, January 9 (BTA) - "All our predictions for 1996 have failed," the President of the National Statistical Institute (NSI) Zahari Karamfilov said in an interview for BTA. The Bulgarian economy has become unmanageable and has reversed all positive tendencies in 1994 and 1995, Prof. Karamfilov noted. The fulcrums of projection: level of production, gross domestic product, trade balance and employment, proved unrealistic, the NSI President admits. "This GDP growth and this inflation rate threw Bulgaria back to 1990 and 1991. All this shows that the direction in which we have been going during all these years is wrong and economic development must be redirected," Prof. Karamfilov emphasized.Bulgarian Telegraph Agency Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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