News from Bulgaria / 96-06-20

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From: Embassy of Bulgaria <bulgaria@access1.digex.net>

EMBASSY OF BULGARIA - WASHINGTON D.C.

BTA - BULGARIAN TELEGRAPH AGENCY

20 June, 1996

CONTENTS

[01] PRESIDENT ZHELEV NOMINATED FOR THE TRANSITION AWARD

[02] PRESIDENT ZHELEV LEAVES FOR POLAND

[03] BULGARIAN PARLIAMENTARIANS RECEIVED BY PRESIDENT DEMIREL

[04] BLACK SEA ECONOMIC COOPERATION: JOINT COMMUNICATION PROJECTS

[05] BALKAN CULTURAL COOPERATION INSTITUTIONS SET UP

[06] BULGARIAN, ROMANIAN GENERAL PROSECUTORS MEET

[07] SUPREME JUDICIAL COUNCIL TO ELECT PRESIDENTS OF FUTURE SUPREME CASSATION AND ADMINISTRATIVE COURTS

[08] IN PARLIAMENT TODAY

[09] E.B.R.D. APPROVES LOAN FOR BULGARIA

[10] SECOND ROUND OF MASS PRIVATIZATION STARTS

[11] BULGARIAN-CYPRIAN COMMISSION ON COOPERATION MEETS

[12] BUSINESS PRESS

[01] PRESIDENT ZHELEV NOMINATED FOR THE TRANSITION AWARD

At the Crans Montana forum, President Zhelev will make a speech about the transition under way in Bulgaria and the rest Eastern European countries.

[02] PRESIDENT ZHELEV LEAVES FOR POLAND

This evening the Bulgarian President is likely to meet his Polish counterpart Kwasniewski, said Presidential Spokesman Valentin Stoyanov.

Participating in the forum will also be NATO Secretary General Javier Solana and nearly all members of the NATO military and political leadership, President Zhelev also said. Attending will be Czech President Vaclav Havel, the Foreign Ministers of Latvia and Hungary, Valdis Birkavs and Laszlo Kovacs, politicians and public figures.

[03] BULGARIAN PARLIAMENTARIANS RECEIVED BY PRESIDENT DEMIREL

Demirel said there are no problems whatsoever in the bilateral relations. "We are pleased with Bulgaria's successes," said Demirel, adding that one day there would be no border between the two countries and they would be able to forge closer ties face to face and not back to back.

Academician Sendov stressed cooperation can be further deepened and widened in sectors including the economy and business, tourism and sport. He said that this year Bulgaria is effecting a difficult restructuring and is taking steps to stabilize its banking system.

At the end of the 40-minute conversation President Demirel sent greetings to the Bulgarian people and Parliament.

"Today we are glad that together we overcame the confrontation of the not so distant past, that we closed a chapter of suspicion and distrust," Blagovest Sendov said at his meeting with Sedat Alooglu, chairman of the committee of foreign affairs of Turkey's Grand National Assembly. Sendov stressed that parliamentary ties were given special attention during the visit with a view to making them even better.

Alooglu said committee members and MPs of the Turkey- Bulgaria friendship group were preparing to go to Sofia and seek ways to deepen goodneighbourly relations and cooperation. The conversation focused on tax legislation and tax breaks to foreign investors.

Ivan Gaitandjiev, head of the Bulgaria-Turkey friendship group in Bulgarian Parliament, outlined the main aspects of the work of the Committee on Foreign Policy and European Integration. He emphasized the priorities of Bulgaria's foreign policy whose key principles are realism, pragmatism and dignity. Bulgaria has laid sound foundations of democracy and any human rights problems emerging along the way are being solved and will be solved, said Kemal Eyup, MP of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms.

[04] BLACK SEA ECONOMIC COOPERATION: JOINT COMMUNICATION PROJECTS

Representatives of Azerbaijan, Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine discussed the prospects for cooperation in telecoms equipment. The meeting was attended by businessmen of the member countries and by Israeli observers. Time limits were set for each project. Another subject for discussion was Bulgaria's proposal to set up a Balkan telecoms pool as part of a preliminary programme for the development of Bulgaria's telecommunications until the year 2010.

Optical fibre cable should be laid by the year's end along the Balkan route linking Istanbul, Sofia, Skopje, Tirana and Bari (Italy). It will improve Balkan communications and become part of the European telecoms system, experts say. The document signed today will be presented to the foreign ministers of the Black Sea Cooperation countries and will become binding once it is signed by them.

[05] BALKAN CULTURAL COOPERATION INSTITUTIONS SET UP

The proposals made at the meeting provide for the setting up of a Balkan symphonic orchestra including musicians of the seven Balkan countries taking part in the meeting, as well as the inauguration of a Balkan Film Festival, a Month of Balkan Culture and a Balkan Book Fair, Ms Anna Sendova, chief of the International Cultural Cooperation Division of the Ministry of Culture, told a news conference today.

The Balkan countries will also exchange tours by theatrical companies and organize schools for talented children and adolescents. Scientific seminars on different topics will also be held within the Interbalkan Cultural Network.

The meeting devoted special attention to preserving the cultural heritage of all Balkan countries. Today it was decided to compile a reference book on Bulgarian artistic unions, foundations and cultural institutions to be exchanged with the other Balkan countries, Sendova also said. The second meeting for founding an Interbalkan Cultural Network will be held on June 28 in Bucharest.

[06] BULGARIAN, ROMANIAN GENERAL PROSECUTORS MEET

"For us it is important for this visit to help pool our efforts in combatting crime and in establishing constant contact," Drugulin said after the meeting. "We have numerous common problems and above all common concerns, therefore there is only one way - cooperation between the two institutions, the Romanian Prosecutor General said. The differences in the structure of the judiciary of the two countries are no obstacle to joint work, Drugulin believes.

Drugulin specified that the purpose of his visit to Bulgaria is not to discuss concrete cases. The talks focused on economic crime and smuggling. "After we return to Romania we wish to send Prosecutor General Tatarchev a draft protocol outlining our future cooperation," the Romanian Prosecutor General said.

[07] SUPREME JUDICIAL COUNCIL TO ELECT PRESIDENTS OF FUTURE SUPREME CASSATION AND ADMINISTRATIVE COURTS

The nominations for presidents of SCC and SAC will be discussed on July 3 when the election will be held. The SJC members agreed that there are grounds to elect the two presidents. The new courts will operate under the laws of procedure that are in force now, the lack of appeals courts is not a problem, said Slavov.

Justice Minister Mladen Chervenyakov said SCC and SAC will not start operating until procedure laws are in place and until provisions are made for their financing from the judiciary's budget for 1996. He said this is not the start of legal reform but an attempt to hand out seats to representatives of a certain political force or people serving certain interests. Chervenyakov said the notion of cassation proceedings is not clear enough yet. It should also be decided whether SCC will have the power to control and revoke rulings. First it should be decided what cases will be heard and according to what procedure; members of the two Supreme Councils should be elected afterwards, Chervenyakov said last week.

[08] IN PARLIAMENT TODAY

The National Assembly passed at second reading today clauses of the Bill to Amend the Agriculture Land Tenure Act and the Bill on Radio, Television and BTA.

[09] E.B.R.D. APPROVES LOAN FOR BULGARIA

[10] SECOND ROUND OF MASS PRIVATIZATION STARTS

The Securities and Stock Exchanges Commission has to date licensed 45 privatization funds. As of this Thursday they are expected to start collecting privatization vouchers, the instrument they will use to bid for shares in the enterprises offered for denationalization. A total of 112 privatization funds have applied for licence and the Commission refused to 35 of them. The registration is due to be complete by mid-July. A privatization fund that has failed to raise the required capital will not be admitted to the privatization rounds.

Only 12 of the licensed privatization funds have published their prospectus, but many more have already launched promotion campaigns. Some have staked on TV and newspaper advertisements while others have opted for direct contacts with potential investors through agents across the country. Still others hope to attract investors using the names of well-known companies.

The launch of the campaign for attracting investors stirred up worries that some of the privatization funds might turn out to be one of those much-feared financial pyramids that defrauded over 100,000 Bulgarians of their savings last year. The Commission believes the legislation regulating their operation provides safeguards. "By law, privatization companies are not allowed to attract cash in the form of deposits. Therefore, if a financial pyramid is defined as a structure that pays dividends to long-time investors by attracting new depositors, a privatization fund cannot operate in this way," said Commission chief Hristian Tanoushev. However, the Commission's approval for the launch of a privatization fund is not a guarantee in itself as it estimates neither the nature nor the degree of the risk investors are taking. Tanoushev stressed that the prospectuses the Commission has approved are drawn up carefully and demonstrate serious and long- term plans on the part of their founders. And yet experts of the Commission say there are no guarantees against malpractices by some of the privatization funds. "Noone can guarantee this, neither in Bulgaria nor in countries with developed stock markets," they say.

Of a total of 6.5 million eligible Bulgarians, 3 million registered for mass privatization, according to figures of the Mass Privatization Centre. The registration deadline was extended twice.

[11] BULGARIAN-CYPRIAN COMMISSION ON COOPERATION MEETS

There are broad opportunities for economic cooperation between Bulgaria and Cyprus in the field of construction, health care and telecommunications; this is what we have to work for during the session, Konakchiev said at the opening ceremony. He went on to stress that the relations between Bulgaria and Cyprus are expanding most rapidly in the sphere of tourism and trade thanks to the trade agreement the sides signed in March, as well as to the agreement on cooperation in tourism signed last year. The commercial exchange between Bulgaria and Cyprus grew in 1995, Konakchiev said.

Khristodoulou said that the sides have drafted an agreement on cooperation in health care and are in the process of preliminary talks to set up a Bulgarian-Cyprian bank.

Konakchiev informed the participants in the meeting about the recovery in the Bulgarian economy which started in 1995 and that the Socialist Government has launched the structural reform. He said that the Bulgarian Government supports the U.N. resolution on the Cyprus question and wishes the drafting of viable decisions for the Cyprian people. Khristodoulou expressed his gratitude for Bulgaria's support and wished its Government success in implementing the reforms in the economy.

The Bulgarian-Cyprian trade in 1995 amounted to USD 19 million; Bulgarian exports to Cyprus reached USD 12 million, participants in the meeting said. A total of 94 Bulgarian-Cyprian joint- ventures in the field of the light industry, food-processing, trade and tourism promote the cooperation between Bulgaria and Cyprus.

[12] BUSINESS PRESS

The trade-union organization at the Sodi-Devnya works protest strongly against the plans of the Privatization Agency to sell up to 60 percent of the assets to a foreign investor. The employees of Sodi insist that Prime Minister Zhan Videnov and a team of experts visit the enterprise and consider once more the methods of its privatization, "Troud" writes. Sodi is one of the few Bulgarian enterprises which self-finance their operation. It expects to post a profit of about 900 million (currently one US dollar exchanges for about 150 leva) for 1996. At the moment the enterprise utilizes 80 percent of its capacities and its output is 1.2 million t of calcinated soda ash a year. About 90 percent of it is sold on the international market.

According to a report by Minister of Trade and Foreign Economic Cooperation Atanas Paparizov, trade between Bulgaria and Cyprus amounted to 19 million dollars last year, "24 Chassa" says. Bulgaria's exports totalled 12 million and its imports - 7 million.

The 10th session of the Bulgarian-Cyprian Commission for Economic Cooperation, which opens in Sofia today, will focus on the opportunities to increase trade and improve the composition of exports.

Mrt Paparizov notes in his report that Bulgaria should make better use of the opportunities Cyprus offers as a banking, commercial and telecommunication centre for gaining positions on the Middle East markets.

The analysis of trade between the two countries shows that Bulgaria exports mainly products of the chemical, textile and mechanical engineering industries, which its imports consist in raw materials and other inputs for the chemical, food processing and textile industries.

The Commission will also consider the chances of removing obstacles to trade, resulting from Cyprus changing some commercial statutory acts in connection with its full integration into the European Union.

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