At its regular meeting today the Council of Ministers approved a project for settling Bulgaria's trade deficit with China by exporting production of SFr 21 million's worth from the Chavdar Bus Works in Botevgrad (Northern Bulgaria) to third countries.
The Cabinet reversed a 1970 decision validating the Soviet pharmacopoeia. The Ministry of Health is working on a Bulgarian pharmacopoeia; until its completion the European one will be used.
The Government endorsed the staging of the Hemous International Exhibition of Defence Equipment under the auspices of the Minister of Defence, Dimiter Pavlov. The exhibition will be held every two years in the last week of May.
The Cabinet allowed the Russian ship "Sevan" to stay at the dockyard of Varna Port from July 1, 1995 to April 28, 1996 for repair.
The Cabinet decided to propose to Parliament to endorse the participation of an army squad in a joint military excercise in Greece from July 1 to 9, 1995. The decision should be made by Parliament because the Bulgarian soldiers will be equipped and armed by the receiving country.
The Council of Ministers approved the members of a delegation to the 20th session of the Intergovernmental Bulgarian-Libyan Committee on Economic, Industrial and Technological Cooperation to be held in Tripoli on July 1, 1995.
The Government approved an agreement for 15 million guilders of grant aid from the Netherlands to Bulgaria signed on May 23, 1995. The agreement will have to be ratified by the National Assembly too.
The Cabinet approved the Bulgarian-Armenian agreement on the promotion and reciprocal protection of investments and will propose to Parliament to ratify it.
The cabinet ministers approved a draft agreement with Uzbekistan on air services between the two countries and outside their territories.
The Cabinet approved an agreement on the exchange of trainees with Switzerland. Bulgaria and Switzerland will receive 50 young people each between 18 and 30 years of age who have qualifications certificates; the training period is up to 12 months.
June 22 - At today's regular meeting the Council of Ministers approved a privatization funds bill. "This is a key bill regulating the denationalization of state property amounting to about 200,000 million leva's worth in the coming months, said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development Roumen Gechev who sponsored the bill together with the Minister of Justice. "The approval of the bill means our preparations for mass privatization are coming along according to schedule," Minister Gechev said. It is planned to distribute and register the privatization vouchers in November 1995; in February 1996 they should converted into shares in the 150 commercial partnerships that will be denationalized in the first stage of privatization.
The bill will regulate the operation of funds making it possible for the holders of privatization vouchers to take part in the privatization process. It specifies the terms and procedure of their establishment, their activities and control by the State. The bill specifies the functions of the Commission to be set up with the Ministry of Economic Development that will license and control the privatization funds. The Commission will include members of the law enforcement authorities. Persons with a criminal record will be barred from setting up privatization funds. The minimum capital required for the establishment of a privatization fund is set at 100 million leva. At least 70 percent of the initial capital should be in the form of privatization vouchers or shares acquired by their conversion; 20 percent of the capital should be in real money, securities, movable or immovable property. Privatization funds founders will be obliged to publish booklets with information about their major objectives and the risks investment activities involve. The registration of a privatization fund with court is subject to license from the Commission. Under the bill the privatization funds will be managed by a financial institution. At any moment a fund should have 70 percent of its capital in the form of privatization vouchers or shares. As to the remaining part of the capital, the funds are left to decide what form it will be kept in themselves. According to the sponsors of the bill, these provisions are aimed to lend stability to the funds and reduce the risk for investors. Privatization fund can acquire maximum 34 percent interest in privatized enterprises. "The provision is in line with the anti-trust law," Minister of Justice Mladen Chervenyakov said. Once adopted by Parliament, the funds may be set up immediately upon the entry into force of the act. "However, a lot of financial and economic groups have already made preparations to establish privatization funds," Roumen Gechev said.
The Government adopted today a decree, setting up an Industry Development fund with the Industry of Ministry, intended to stimulate industrial production. The fund will be operating on an extra-budgetary account with the Ministry of Industry, Industry Minister Kliment Vouchev said. According to Minister Vouchev, the fund will collect extra-budgetary money and the state will have a 52 per cent in it. The authorised capital has been planned to be 800 million leva for the time being, but, according to Mr Vouchev, this figure may be exceeded. The current lending counditions are unfavourable for certain projects, the Minister of Industry said. Even enterprises in good financial state are facing investment difficulties. The establishment of the fund, without violating the lending system, will try to use its loopholes. The fund will not float loans, but will grant interest-free sums, which are to be repaid in the future. The mechanism of repayment has yet to be specified, Miister Kliment Vouchev said. The fund will raise money from sale of industrial products, research and applied projects, it will collect proceeds from contracts, juristic and natural persons, donations etc. The raised money will be chiefly used for the production of new articles, products, materials, technologies etc. The fund will be managed by the Minister of Industry and the Industry Ministry has been charged to draft a decree on the mechanism of collecting and using the funds.
"We were convinced that there is support and determination on the part of most countries to seek a peaceful solution to the Yugoconflict," Bulgarian Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski told a National TV interviewer summing up the results of his recent visits to Zagreb and Belgrade and talks with Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu, as well as of Prime Minister Zhan Videnov's visit in Athens this week. "Whenever an inclination emerged for seeking a military solution, we stated clearly out firm belief that it will not be a lasting solution," Georgi Pirinski went on to say. According to him, all countries would accept a negotiated solution. "With its stand on the Yugoconflict and the whole complex of related problems, Bulgaria received a due recognition during the visit and this cannot but please us," said the Bulgarian Foreign Minister. He further appraised in highly positive terms his meeting with Serb President Slobodan Milosevic and stressed his impression that the Serb leadership and the Yugoslav President firmly favour a peaceful solution to the conflict.
Pirinski believes that Yugoslavia seeks to promote bilateral relations on the basis of mutual benefit and equality. Tangible opportunities emerged for activating the bilateral ties with all countries we had contacts with, said Pirinski. He believes there are prospects for lasting cooperation with new partners such as Croatia; an impetus was given to the relations with some other countries, like Yugoslavia, that have been in a period of stagnation recently. Pirinski further said that President Milosevic is ready to seriously address Bulgaria's concern over the treatment of the Bulgarian minority in Yugoslavia, as well as some other issues that might create misunderstanding. President Milosevic is ready to help resolve such issues so as to prevent them from turning into an obstacle for the further development of bilateral contacts. Foreign Minister Pirinski also said that the Bulgarian side brought to the fore the question of providing constitutional guarantees for the rights of the Bulgarian minority in Yugoslavia and the participation of Bulgarians in the government at municipal and other levels. The Serb leaders pledged to inquire into tips-off for encroachment on the rights of Bulgarians in Yugoslavia. On a number of occasions, the Yugoslav government stated it has no reservations as to the freedom of the Bulgarian minority to manifest their cultural and ethnic identity. The so called "Serb minority" was not on the agenda of the visit, Pirinski said in connection with reports in the Bulgarian press about claims of the Yugoslav representatives at the UN. Following an official UN report on violation of the rights of Bulgarians in Yugoslavia, on March 9 the Yugoslav mission at the UN issued a note claiming there was a Serb minority in Bulgaria. According to Pirinski, the Serb side understands that this issue does not exist. Bulgaria does not want to have this problem discussed at official level but if this happens, it is ready to come up with a firm stand, said the Bulgarian Foreign Minister. He believes that the Bulgarian public has already sufficiently clearly stated its attitude to attempts to raise this issue.
Radio Free Europe's correspondent in Belgrade Eli Youroukova said that the Democratic Union of the Bulgarians in Yugoslavia sent yesterday a letter of protest to the Serbian Ministry of Information and Serbian Minister Ratomir Vico, in which they voice discontent with the information blackout in connection with the visit of Bulgarian Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski to Belgrade. "We could not understand from the Yugoslavian mass media whether the issue of the Bulgarian minority in Serbia had been raised by the Bulgarian Foreign Minister," Zdenka Todorova, one of the leaders of the Union said today for Radio Free Europe. There was no information whether in the talks with the Yogoslavian representatives and with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, Minister Pirinski had brought forward the main problems that we are facing in Serbia. It is from the Bulgarian mass media and the foreign radio stations that we learned that these topics had been high on the agenda in the talks between Bulgarian Foreign Minister and the Serbian authorities. We are thus asking why do we have newspapers, radio and television in Bulgarian language, which would not report the most important news, the correspondence quotes Zdenka Todorova as saying.
The Governmental Committee on European Integration will propose to the Council of Ministers to approve the drafting of a long-term strategy for Bulgaria's accession with the European Union and lodging an application for full EU membership. The Government's press centre said that at its today's meeting the Committee on European Integration with the Council of Ministers decided to work up a strategy for long-term cooperation with the European Commission's PHARE programme for the period 1996-1999. At a national level the programme will be coordinated by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Foreign Economic cooperation Kiril Tsochev.
A delegation, led by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Foreign Economic Cooperation Kiril Tsochev, departed today for Baghdad to take part in the 22nd session of the Bulgarian-Iraqi Committee on scientific and technical cooperation. "During the visit we shall review the bilateral economic relations, which have been dull after the Gulf War, we shall seek opportunities to widen our contacts once the UN embargo is lifted," Mr Tsochev said before his departure. Iraq's debt to Bulgaria is some 2,000 million US dollars, interests included, and Bulgaria shall insist on the signing of a document, which will ensure preferences in the repayment of the obligations. On the delegation are representatives of state-owned companies, which conducted construction works in Iraq. They will be able to inspect the current state of the facilities they have left in Iraq and to close futures deals. Iraq is among the states, included in the foreign policy of the Trade Ministry, Mr Tsochev said.
The loan to Bulgaria will chiefly be repaid in oil and there is already a signed contract with the Iraqi oil company for the delivery of 4,700,000 tonnes of oil, part of which had been paid before the military operations started in 1991, the Deputy Prime Minister specified. As part of his visit, Kiril Tsochev will also go to Jordan, where he will meet with the Jordan Trade Minister and Prime Minister. A meeting with King Hussein and probably with his crown prince Hassan is waiting confirmation. "Commercial exchange between the two states adds up to 30 million US dollars, which is quite insufficient, given the existing potentials of Jordan and Bulgaria," Mr Tsochev said. From Jordan Bulgaria chiefly imports phosphates and exports there lambs. The Bulgarian experts on the delegation will seek opportunities to widen the contacts and particularly to sign construction project deals. 22-06-1995 - 0
The tendency of retarded decline and gradual revival of production, which characterized the first quarter of 1995, persisited also into May, Dimiter Fratev, Spokesman for the National Statistical Institute (NSI) told a news conference today. Public sector enterprises (not including agriculture) produced some 63,000 million leva worth of output in May which is 4 percent up from the same month in 1994. According to NSI's business polls, the enterprises of the public and the private sectors have received more advance orders, compared with the previous years. Industries again have contributed most for the growth of production, Mr Fratev said. In May industrial output was up 4.1 percent against the same period last year and up 1.3 percent since the beginning of this year. Of the total of 18 industry branches, eight have shown revival in May and four since the beginning of the year. Between January and May the increase of production from the like period last year in the chemical and oil-processing industries was worth 6,000 million leva and 3,000 million leva in the ferrous metallurgy. In glass, china and faience industries the growth was 100 million leva and 1,400 million leva in electricity and heat power production. The downward trend in food-processing, however, is continuing, NSI Spokesman said. Compared with last year's figures, in May the monthly drop of production was some 10 percent and 17 percent for the period January-May. With a drop of 1,700 million leva, most dramatic is the situation in the production of tobacco products, followed by that of milk and dairy products, 0,700 million leva, and meat and meat products, 1,100 million leva. Construction enterprises in the public sector have shown largest proceeds from sales and services since the beginning of the year, amounting to 2,300 million leva in May. For the period January-May, however, the same enterprises showed a 22 percent drop from the like period in 1994, NSI figures show. Retail trade, realized by public and private commercial enterprises, adds up to 26,000 million leva in May this year and to 127,000 million leva for the first five months of 1995. Private companies accounted for 75 percent of trade in the period under review, NSI Spokesman said.
Germany accounts for 40% of foreign investment in Bulgaria, said Dr Mitko Vassilev, chief of the German economy representation in Bulgaria, "Troud" writes. In 1994 German direct investment amounted to 218 million US dollars. The average size of one German investment is 1.253 million dollars. At present there are over 400 German companies on the Bulgarian market in the form of branches, representations and joint ventures. Germany is Bulgaria's second trade partner after Russia. Bulgaria ranks 57th among Germany's trade partners. German statistics place 1994 commercial exchange at DM 1,072 million. Bulgarian exports to Germany totalled DM 743 million, Vassilev added.
The Neftochim-Bourgas oil refinery (on the Black Sea) has invested US$ 40 million in the production of new types of petrol, "Troud" writes. A-91, A-95H Eurosuper and A-98 Europremium are expected to appear on the Bulgarian market. The new types will replace A-93H and A- 96 and the production of A-86 and A-93 petrol will continue. The replacement will take place gradually, according to Neftochim Executive Director Stefan Nedelchev cited by "Troud". "Douma" also runs an interview with Stefan Nedelchev on Neftochim's new products.
Bulgarian foreign debt bonds depreciated on the world debt instruments market yesterday, "Standart News" reports. Discount bonds went down by 0.625 cents to 48.125 cents per one dollar of debt. They were offered at 48.875 cents. Interest arrears bonds traded at 39.375 cents per one dollar of debt which is 0.5 cents down from Tuesday. Their selling quotations dropped to 40 cents per one dollar of debt. Front-loaded interest reduction bonds traded at 24.12-24.5 cents per one dollar of debt. On Tuesday they closed at 24.37-24.75 cents per one dollar of debt.
Standart News" devotes an entire page to a signed article claiming that the powerful Multigroup economic grouping "has appetites" for one of the largest enterprises of this country's chemical industry near Devnya (not far from Varna, on the Black Sea). The authors of the article write of shared interests between the grouping and representatives of the Government and Parliament.
Balkan Airways has 48 aircraft, "Continent" writes, citing the company's director Hristo Pavlov. On the next three years the company will need 7-8 new passenger and cargo aircraft. Pavlov also said that Balkan representations abroad (about 80) will not be closed down.
The European Bank Federation accepted the Bulgarian Association of Commercial Banks (ACB, uniting most of this country's banks) as its corresponding member, "Continent" writes. The ACB has applied for affiliating the Bulgarian banking system to the European banking community.