News from Bulgaria / Nov. 8, 95

From: bulgaria@access1.digex.net (Embassy of Bulgaria)

Bulgarian Telegraph Agency Directory

EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA - WASHINGTON D.C.

BTA - BULGARIAN TELEGRAPH AGENCY

CONTENTS

[01] MEETINGS OF PRESIDENT ZHELEV

President Zhelev handed Mr O'Sullivan a message for EU Commissioner Hans van den Broek, in charge of external relations with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, expressing his gratitude for Mr van den Broek's support for the East-West transport corridor in the Balkans, reads a press release of the President's Press Office. Asked whether Greece's negative attitude to the project will create any problems, Thomas O'Sullivan answered that "all projects of this kind are interrelated". "There are different interests which must be accommodated. Our approach in these matters is always to see how best the interests of not only the member-states but also of our partners in the region complement," Ambassador O'Sullivan stated.

Spanish Ambassador in Sofia Jorge Fuentes handed Zhelev an official invitation to take part in the EU summit due in Madrid on December 16. He familiarized the Bulgarian Head of State with the decision to invite Bulgaria to the Euro-Mediterranean Conference to be held in Barcelona this month.

Italian Ambassador to Bulgaria Stefano Rastrelli handed President Zhelev an official invitation to visit Italy in early December. The invitation was gratefully accepted, President's Spokesman Valentin Stoyanov said.

[02] BULGARIA AND EUROPEAN TRANSPORT CORRIDORS

[03] GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE ON EUROPEAN INTEGRATION HOLDS MEETING

[04] FOREIGN MINISTER PIRINSKI, DEFENCE MINISTER PAVLOV

Sofia, November 7 (BTA) - Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski and Defence Minister Dimiter Pavlov will attend a meeting of the West European Union Ministerial Council which will take place on November 13 and 14 in Madrid. Bulgaria attaches great importance to the second stage of "cooperative reflection" which is expected to find efficient answers to the new challenges facing the European security and stability, the Defence Ministry's press release reads.

[05] CHLOROFORM CONTAMINATES AIR OVER ROUSSE

Rousse, November 7 (BTA) - The presence of chloroform in alarmingly high concentrations in the air over Rousse was revealed at a news conference today by Elena Stancheva, Director of Analysis A Plus, a private monitoring laboratory, and Hristina Momchilova, Civil Defence expert. Chloroform is a chemical compound exceedingly harmful to the human body; it decomposes the blood and damages the kidneys and the brain, toxicologists said in this connection.

For three months now, since it started testing on a comssmion of the Environment Ministry, Analysis A Plus has been detecting the presence of chloroform in the air over Rousse. The Ministry has been monitoring with alarm the chemical compounds inhaled by the people of Rousse. The chloroform readings are not published because continuous measurements are needed taking into account the meteorological factor in order to identify the source. During those three months, Civil Defence has launched urgent checks in all industrial operations in Rousse but did not found a single litre manufactured or stored as an input.

The strangest thing is that despite the high concentration in Rousse's air of chloroform, which is highly volatile and fast- disintegrating, no products of its disintegration have been detected in the air so far.

The inspectors found no chloroform in Rousse's enterprises, and it cannot emerge spontaneously in nature. Chlorine is only produced across the Danube, in Romania. Now that the accurate tests of the Analysis A Plus laboratory have been commissioned, the public in Rousse expects the findings of the Environment Ministry experts.

Deputy Chief of the Regional Department of the Civil Defence in Rousse Lieutenant-Colonel Stefan Petrov told BTA that the municipal and the regional civil defence departments differentiate themselves from the facts, which the Analysis Plus laboratory announced at a news conference today. He said that the term "high concentration" has not been used according to the definitions of the Bulgarian State Standard. The Civil Defence departments are working to clarify the problem, Lieutenant-Colonel Petrov said.

[06] BUSINESS PRESS

Sofia, November 7 (BTA) - Three more Bulgarian companies will run bus services to Greece, under an agreement of the Bulgarian- Greek commission on transport in Athens late last week. According to "Standart News", Greece asked Bulgaria to reduce road tolls for buses and trucks.

The Bulgarian National Bank contributed 10,900 million leva to the exchequer in the first ten months of 1995, "24 Chassa" writes, quoting the Ministry of Finance.

The Finance Ministry reported the budget deficit in late October hit 44,680 million leva, dailies write. It is 91.7% of the annual target. The deficit stood at 46,650 million leva in September, or 95.7% of the target, "Continent" recalls.

Shell offered the biggest Bulgarian refinery Neftochim in Bourgas on the Black Sea to invest in storage facilities and a fuel terminal, Angel Ivanov of the Foreign Investment Agency yesterday told an international oil conference in Sofia, "Standart News" reports. Amoco offered the refinery $1 million for a programme to test products. Rolls Royce also showed interest in the Bulgarian oil industry.

[07] BULGARIA, JAPAN: ECONOMIC CONTACTS

Tokyo, November 7 (BTA exclusive by Daniela Kuneva) Bulgaria stands all chances of receiving from Japan loans at most favourable conditions for a term of up to 30 years and at 3 per cent interest, it emerged today after the meeting of Deputy Prime Minister Roumen Gechev and the Governor of the National Bank of Bulgaria (BNB) Prof. Todor Vulchev with the current senior Vice Governor of the Bank of Japan (Japan's central bank) Toshihiro Fukui, who is expected to head the key Japanese financial institution in the nearest future. According to experts, Japan has been facing difficulties as a result of the appreciation of the Yen and is willing to invest abroad not only directly by establishing enterprizes, an initiative which Bulgaria would welcome, but also by financing industrial projects, without stipulating conditions for supplying the projects with Japanese machines and equipment. In this situation the current Japanese-Bulgarian banking contacts in Tokyo as well as the meetings with important financial investment institutions and foreign cooperation funds are acquiring particular practical importance. Currently negotiations have been held on projects in metallurgy, particularly the non-ferrous one, oil production, electronics, disc memory storage devices etc. Tomorrow's presentation of Bulgaria at the largest Japanese financial house "Nomura Securitio" and the top level meeting of the heads of the Bulgarian delegation with the citadel of the Japanese business, Japan Federation of Economic Organisations (KEIDANREN), have been expected with particular interest. At the meeting with the President of the Japanese television NJK Mr Kavagouchi, Mr Gechev backed on the part of the Bulgarian government the willingness of the Bulgarian National Television, stated in a letter to the NHK that as of April, 1996, Bulgaria receives a satellite Japanese channel, which will function for the first time in Central and Eastern Europe and will be centered in Bulgaria. The TV communication will be two-way as the Japanese television is short of television programmes from Bulgaria.

[08] AGRICULTURE MINISTRY APPROVES NEW PROJECT

Sofia, November 7 (BTA) - A project ambitiously called "Milk for Bulgaria," which the Ministry of Agriculture and Food-Processing approved today, promises to meet one third of the country's milk requirements. The project has been proposed by the Angora Joint- Stock Company, Deputy Minister Maria Lazarova told a news briefing today.

The project concerns annual production and domestic-market sales of 600 million tonnes of cow's milk, which is 35 per cent of the nationwide output. It calls for a complete retooling and updating of the facilities of dairy cattle breeding and sheep breeding. There are also plans to provide farming machinery for production of animal feed, remodelling and updating of several meat-packing and dairy- processing enterprises, and import of high-yielding cows. The authors of the idea suggest to eliminate fragmentation in milch cow breeding and to establish 800 1,000 modern cow-breeding and 350 - 400 sheep-breeding operations nationwide. Another advantage of the project is that it will help utilizate over 50,000 hectares of derelict land.

The project will cost 320 million US dollars to implement. The money will come from foreign financial institutions, without counting either on the national budget or the Agriculture Fund. For the time being, the initiators would not disclose their future creditors. Even at this point, however, it is clear that lending will be provided by the classic international schemes for investment financing. The terms will include a three-year grace period and repayment of the loan in goods, said Angora President Ivan Mihailov.

If the State becomes guarantor of the project, its implementation may start even at the beginning of 1996. This, however, will have to be decided by the Government which will consider the project shortly.

[09] SOCIALISTS AND OPPOSITION READY THEMSELVES FOR

Sofia, November 7 (BTA) - The ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the opposition in Bulgaria are getting ready for the run-off local elections. Both the Socialists and the opposition hope they would gain more mayor's offices. At a news briefing today the Socialist leadership expressed their satisfaction with the representation the Bulgarian Socialist Party gained in the municipal councils. In about 50 per cent of the municipalities the Socialists got an overwhelming majority; in about 30 per cent they may gain majority in coalition with some left and left-of centre forces; the BSP is unlikely to gain majority only in about 20 per cent of the municipalities, the news briefing was told. Deputy Chairman of the Executive Bureau of BSP's Supreme Council Georgi Purvanov reported about a meeting this morning between the leaderships of the BSP and the DAR (Democratic Alternative for the Republic, a left-of- centre formation of ex-Socialists). The meeting discussed the prospects for cooperation between the left and the left-of-centre forces in the second round of the local elections and the need to cooperate in the combat against "the right and destructive forces". "We believe that now the opposition is facing better chances than in the first round of elections," Deputy Chairman of the largest opposition force, the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) Peter Stoyanov said after the meeting of the supreme leadership of the organisation. According to UDF leaders, the good showing of its candidates it the first round of elections in Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna and other towns, arouses hopes that the BSP may be defeated in the run- off. The UDF is also encouraged by the consolidation of the opposition forces. The opposition hopes that its candidates will win the mayor's seats in Sofia, Varna, Gabrovo, Bourgas, Pleven, Montana, Haskovo, Blagoevgrad. The pre-election situation in Kurdjali (Southern Bulgaria) is still complicated, said Georgi Purvanov, having visited this inhabited by compact masses of ethnic Turks region. In the night after the first round of elections the Socialists said that their candidate had won. The ethnic Turks' Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) said that it was their candidate who won. It eventually emerged that there will be second round of elections in this town. Mr Purvanov said that the allegations, that the MRF has offered bribes to voters, have been confirmed. He said that written evidence was provided by voters who received bribes. According to Mr Purvanov, through its structures the MRF has been seeking election advantages in the region by sabotaging the purchasing of tobacco, the main means of livelihood of the ethnic Turks there. Yesterday 17 parties in the region signed an agreement to support in the run-off elections the independent candidate Dr Georgiev, Mr Purvanov said. In this way the voters in Kurdjali will be guided neither by ethnic, nor by ideological motives, Georgi Purvanov said. In his view since the beginning of the election campaign the BSP and the UDF on local level have been holding negotiations, which Mr Purvanov described as "constructive". At a news conference of the Popular Union today the problem in Kurdjali was described as "artificial inciting of nationalism". It was also said that the union will support the candidate of the MRF. The UDF filed protest at the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) and the Prosecutor General in connection with violations on part of the national television of the Electoral Law in the period between the two rounds of elections. "The management of the National Television wants to please the Socialist party," says the protest letter of the UDF. The UDF will stage a concluding rally in Sofia on Thursday which, under a decision of CEC, is the last day of the canvassing campaign.