News from Bulgaria / Dec. 1, 95

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

Bulgarian Telegraph Agency Directory

EMBASSY OF BULGARIA - WASHINGTON D.C.

BTA - BULGARIAN TELEGRAPH AGENCY

BULLETIN OF NEWS FROM BULGARIA

CONTENTS

[01] BULGARIA TO SUBMIT FORMAL BID FOR E.U. MEMBERSHIP

Sofia, November 30 (BTA) - The Cabinet today adopted a resolution on Bulgaria's official application for full European Union (EU) membership and approved the texts of the application and the Government memorandum which includes the motives for the bid. Prime Minister Zhan Videnov will present the application at the meeting of state and government leaders of the EU member states and associated countries in Madrid on December 16. Later today, the parliamentary Committee on Foreign Policy approved the text of the parliamentary draft resolution on Bulgaria's official bid for full EU membership. In a statement on behalf of the Cabinet, Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski familiarized the members of the Committee with the Cabinet's key arguments. According to Pirinski, the clearly expressed national consensus that Bulgaria's integration in the EU reflects the firm long-term national interests is at the basis of the Cabinet's decision. Pirinski said that the relations between Bulgaria and the EU member states entered upon an active stage and it is logical that this country should state its willingness to become a full EU member now that the EU is developing the ideas about its reform and enlargement. According to the Cabinet, the fact that Spain is currently holding the EU presidency is another favourable condition for making an official bid. During Spain's presidency of the EU, the Union's attitude to Bulgaria underwent a marked evolution, Pirinski said. An example of this is EU's positive stand on Bulgaria's inclusion in various international forums and programmes on the post-conflict establishment of a peaceful situation on the territory of former Yugoslavia and the reconstruction of the war- devastated areas. Tomorrow, the National Assembly will address as a first item on its agenda the draft resolution in connection with Bulgaria's official application for a full EU membership.

[02] AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNS EXCESSIVE USE

London, November 30 (BTA) - A fax from the News Service of Amnesty International to BTA says that in a letter addressed to the Bulgarian Minister of the Interior the organization expressed its concern about the growing number of incidents of excessive use of force by police officers. "Police appear to have overstepped their bounds in opening fire on suspects in at least five cases recently and have not used their guns only as a last resort," Amnesty International said. The organization lists five cases which occurred in the months in May to November, when, according to Amnesty International, the conduct of police officers was at variance with the United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials. In its letter, Amnesty International asked the Minister of the Interior whether these incidents have been investigated and if so with what results. BTA's "Daily News" expects the official answer of the Bulgarian Ministry of the Interior.

[03] CABINET ADOPTS 1996 CASH PRIVATIZATION PROGRAMME

Sofia, November 30 (BTA) - The cabinet expects cash privatization to bring 21,000 million leva in 1996, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development Roumen Gechev said at the government press office today after the adoption of the 1996 cash privatization programme. The priority areas are tourism, the food industry, textiles, the chemical industry and agriculture.

Half of the proceeds will be in cash and the other half in government bonds. Some 5,000 million leva, 58 per cent of the proceeds, will be allocated to the State Fund for Reconstruction and Development to strengthen the banking system by increasing the state's stake in it, Deputy Prime Minister Gechev said. In his view these funds will be invested in privatization in expectation of high returns on state interest in the future. The remaining 42 per cent will be allocated as follows: 26 per cent to the Agriculture Fund, 4 per cent to the Tobacco Fund, 5 per cent to the National Fund on Nature Conservation, and 7 per cent to the fund covering outlays on privatization.

A total of 467 enterprises will go private in 1996 according to the programme. Privatization deals will be closed by the following agencies: 130 by the Privatization Agency, 40 by the Industry Ministry, 115 by the Trade and Foreign Economic Cooperation Ministry, 30 by the Transport Ministry, 31 by the Agriculture Ministry, 45 by the Territorial Development Ministry, eight by the Culture Ministry, 42 by the Committee on Tourism, 12 by the Energy Committee, four by the Posts and Telecommunications Committee, and 10 by the Forestry Committee.

By October 31, proceeds from privatization totalled 6,118 million leva, Privatization Agency Executive Director Vesselin Blagoev told the news conference. The new owners settled debts to the amount of 276 million leva. Blagoev said that by November 24, 243 privatization deals were closed, of which 61 by the Privatization Agency, 21 by the Industry Ministry, 43 by the Trade Ministry, 16 by the Transport Ministry, 27 by the Construction Ministry, 31 by the Agriculture Ministry, three by the Culture Ministry, 35 by the Committee on Tourism, four by the Energy Committee, and two by the Forestry Committee.

[04] CABINET APPROVES 1996 BUDGET BILL

Sofia, November 30 (BTA) - A Budget Bill approved by the cabinet today projects the budget deficit at 5 per cent, inflation at 20 per cent, GDP growth at 3 per cent, and foreign investment rising to 250-300 million dollars. The budget was drawn up after an in-depth analysis of the state and development of the economy in 1995, Finance Minister Dimiter Kostov said at the government press office.

Kostov said that macroeconomic developments were better than expected, with inflation crawling up to 35 per cent instead of the projected 45-50 per cent, a stable dollar-lev exchange rate, an estimated 2.5 per cent growth in the real economy, and positive trends in the balance-of- payments and exports.

The Finance Minister did not make projections about the dollar-lev exchange rate but said there were grounds to expect that its dynamic would be below the rate of increase in prices. A further drop in interest rates may also become possible.

The Budget Bill sets planned revenues at 419,000 million leva and expenditure at 474,000 million leva. Expenditures by central government departments are planned as follows: defence and police 47,000 million leva, education 47,500 million, health 44,400 million, pensions 57,400 million, and social security 23,000 million. Some 22 per cent of total expenditure will go towards internal and external debt service, Finance Minister Kostov said.

The Budget Bill will be introduced before Parliament along with a package of legislation designed to complete the legal framework of taxation. The laws on the tax administration, tax procedure, accounting, banks and lending will be amended. A new law on profits tax has been proposed that will reduce the tax rate from 40 per cent to 36 per cent and will limit some tax concessions.

[05] EUROMIL SUPPORTS BULGARIAN SERVICEMEN'S

Sofia, November 30 (BTA) - "EUROMIL can do much to help Bulgaria," Jens C. Rotboell, President of the European Association of Military Organizations (EUROMIL), told a news conference here today at the end of a three-day visit at the invitation of the Rakovski Bulgarian Officers Legion (RBOL).

EUROMIL offered RBOL know-how of West European servicemen's trade unions, Rotboell said, asked by "Daily News" to give some details. EUROMIL provides information on undertakings which have helped resolve the social and professional problems of servicemen in Western Europe, he added.

The guest said the organization made suggestions about the Legion's development so that the "rules of the game" in which the army leadership and servicemen are partners could be set in Bulgaria. EUROMIL has repeatedly explained to senior Bulgarian military officers and state officials the concept of the serviceman as "a citizen in uniform" and of the equality of all citizens of a country, he recalled.

At the news conference the EUROMIL President reiterated a statement made at his meeting with Defence Minister Dimiter Pavlov that giving servicemen a chance to live and work according to democratic principles would turn them into good defenders of their nation in time of war. "Nothing could be nobler than teaching soldiers from all countries to cooperate," President Zhelyu Zhelev said at his meeting with Rotboell yesterday.

President Zhelev said he was sure that RBOL would keep its place in civil society and its role in improving the officers' social status and in resolving the servicemen's social problems. "President Zhelev is a 100 per cent democrat, Bulgaria is on the democratic track and EUROMIL will give a 100 per cent support to this country and RBOL," Rotboell stated.

Rotboell and MPs of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security discussed laws concerning the servicemen's career and social rights on Wednesday. "Some MPs are not quite democratically minded," he said, commenting on debates by the Committee as to whether trade unions have a right to exist in the army.

Today RBOL issued a declaration urging that the Defence and Armed Forces Bill, currently debated on second reading, include a provision guaranteeing the right to set up trade unions. According to Rotboell, Minister Pavlov and Army General Lyuben Petrov, former chief of the Bulgarian General Staff, now Socialist MP and member of the National Security Committee, hold much more democratic views on this issue than another Committee member, Vassil Mihailov, MP of the Union of Democratic Forces. RBOL leader Colonel Dimo Dimov described Mihailov's misgivings about a possible involvement of the Legion in a military coup as "groundless" and "ill-reasoned".

The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, to which Bulgaria is a signatory, guarantees the equality of servicemen and civilians, Rotboell said at his meetings. He attended a seminar on the social and professional problems of Bulgarian officers held here in the last few days.

Since 1993 RBOL has taken part in the working sessions of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security. "No other public organization which is not political and does not participate in government has managed to move 100 clauses in the Defence and Armed Forces Bill," the RBOL Secretary, Major Ivan Toshev, said at the seminar two days ago.

Set up in 1990, the Legion has been acting jointly with the defence ministers since 1993 to solve the servicemen's social and professional problems. This year the Defence Ministry and the General Staff signed separate cooperation agreements with the Union of Commissioned and Non-Commissioned Reserve Officers and the Union of Disabled War Veterans.

[06] BUSINESS PRESS

Sofia, November 30 (BTA) - The Government will allocate 10,000 million leva from the state fund for reconstruction and development for resquing banks, it emerged yesterday after a meeting of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Cooperation Roumen Gechev and the governors of the National Bank of Bulgaria (BNB, the central bank), "Standart News" writes. BNB Governor Todor Vulchev is quoted as saying that the money will only go to banks, who have incurred up to 5 per cent of new non-performing loans in their portfolios.

A technical assistance mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), led by Charles Ennoch, arrived here yesterday, "Demokratsiya" says. Together with Henry Chiffman of IMF's legal department, Mr Enoch will discuss with BNB representatives the draft legislation on bankruptcy, the system of guaranteing deposits, the programme foe rehabilitation and restructuring of the banking sector and the foundation of a Bulgarian bank for reconstruction and development, the daily quotes the BNB as saying.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Foreign Economic Cooperation Kiril Tsochev will depart on Friday for Tehran to negotiate the delivery of another 500,000 tonnes of oil per year from Iran, in addition to the 1.5 million tonnes Bulgaria has been receiving from Iran so far, "Standart News" says.

"We have long been studying this region and the discovery of the gas field only confirmed the predictions of the geologists," says in an interview for "Douma" Hristo Gumzakov, Executive Director of "Oil and Gas Prospecting and Mining" Inc. in Pleven (Northern Bulgaria) in connection with the newly discovered gas field near the village of Buzovets, 15 km away from the well-known field near Boutan. According to experts, the new field is of industrial importance and is the first of the four fields which the company has planned to discover before the year 2000. According to Mr Gumzakov, the great discoveries of oil and gas fields in Bulgaria are ahead.

The prices for transfer of import and export cargoes through the territory of Serbia will drop 55 per cent as of December 1, with the entry into force of the new tariff between Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, the Bulgarian State Railways are quoted as saying by "Standart News".

The transport corridor between the ports of Bourgas (Eastern Bulgaria) and Belgrade has been opened, "24 Chassa" says and recalls that the corridor was agreed with Yugoslavia's Transport Ministry already before the imposition of the embargo.

[07] COMPUTER MARKET IN BULGARIA

Sofia, November 30 (Tanya Tsekova of BTA) - Apple Computer, Bulgaria opened yesterday its third exhibition here and presented its latest technologies. According to a company representative, Apple Computer accounts for 4 per cent of the Bulgarian market and its major customers are the private business, the financial institutions and the education. 44,500 computers were sold in Bulgaria in 1994 and 90 per cent of them were PCs. The country practically does not manufacture computers, although until 1989 it had several plants making electronics and the industry was earning quite well. In late 1970s the former Communist government made large investments in the electronic industry and constructed powerful capacities for the manufacture of disk memory storage devices, magnetic mediums, PCs, etc. The state had a monopoly in this field and the ready products were chiefly exported to the former socialist states, in particular the former Soviet Union, which received 87 per cent of the electronics output. With the replacement of the communist regime in 1989, the industry lost all its markets and is still struggling out of the crisis. One of the key manufacturers of electronics, for example, the "Mikroprotsesorni Sistemi" plant in Pravets (Northern Bulgaria) is in position to manufacture 100,000 computers per year, but is currently operating at 10 per cent of its capacities. According to Executive Director Hristo Mantchev, the plant is the largest computer manufacturer in Europe and its equipment alone is worth 80 million US dollars. The management is forced, however, to restructure the plant into making cash registers intended for exports to the former Soviet states. Most former manufacturers have switched over into assembling computers. According to figures, released by the National Statistical Institute, the number of computers assembled here increased from 16,000 in 1993 to 21,000 in 1994. The Bulgarian computer market is, on the whole, small in volume, but quite versatile, according to economists. PCs account for the largest share of sales and 70 per cent of the computers are imported from the Pacific Rim countries. The market grew rapidly over the last few years, but according to expert estimates, effective demand has already been satisfied and the growth rates are expected to slow down in the years to come. According to figures, published in the "Ikonomika" [Economics] magazine, there are 350 companies in the industry, with about 200 operating actively on the market and as few as 20 showing a turnover of over 1 million US dollars. Most companies are dealers or distributors for respected world- known computer manufacturers. The software market here is relatively underdeveloped and accounts for an insignificant share of the market. World leaders like Microsoft and Novell do not participate directly on the market but through dealers. Pirated software copies are in large circulation in Bulgaria, Apple representatives complained at a news briefing. In their view, the problem does not concern Bulgaria alone, but software piracy here is in a larger scale than anywhere else.

[08] UNIQUE ANCIENT VILLAGE DISCOVERED IN THE SAKAR MOUNTAIN

Sofia, November 30 (BTA) - The remains of an ancient village with rock inscriptions was discovered in the Sakar mountain (Southeastern Bulgaria). The graphic and linguistic peculiarities of the inscriptions prompt a relation to the old Phrygian language, according to Dragomir Lalchev, a professor of linguistics at the Neofit Rilski Southwestern University in Blagoevgrad. The discovered rock carvings prove the presence of Phrygians in what are today Bulgarian lands. It would appear from Herodotus that Phrygians inhabited the lands between the Vardar river and Salonika. In the 12th century B.C. they started immigrating from their lands and via Southeastern Thrace settled in Asia Minor. There they founded the Phrygian state in the 8-7 century B.C. Lalchev made photos and plans of the inscriptions in the Sakar mountain. A scientific communication about the discovery will be published soon. It will contain paleographic and linguistic analyses. According to Dragomir Lalchev, the ancient village has an international scientific, cultural and historic importance. "This proves that Bulgaria and the Balkans were a cradle of another ancient civilization - the Phrygian," he stated.

[09] UNION OF BULGARIAN JOURNALISTS EXPRESSES CONCERN

Sofia, November 30 (BTA) - The Union of Bulgarian Journalists (UBJ) made public three open letters at a news conference today, following a recent protest by a group of national radio journalists. UBJ Chairman Alexander Angelov explained that the letters addressed to the President, Parliament's Chairman and the National Radio Director General were provoked by interference from every quarter in the work of almost all journalists and what amounts to oppression by state institutions, political forces and private persons.

Last week a large group of journalists issued a declaration accusing the national radio leaders of dictate. They were received by President Zhelyu Zhelev who backed them up. This prompted the press to write about attempts to practice censorship in the state-owned (national) media.

The President's involvement in the protest of the national radio journalists got various interpretations, most of them political, the letter to President Zhelev says. The UBJ believes that journalists must take their own decisions because "getting directions from the highest place, which hark back to old practices, is hardly one of the rules of civil society".

In its letter to the Parliament Chairman and the Committee on Radio, Television and BTA the Journalists' Union demands the quick passage of laws on the state-run media. The letter says that a probe brought to light cases of unjustified interference in the work of national radio journalists.

The UBJ recommends to National Radio Director General Vecheslav Tounev that rules be set to defend the radio journalists' freedom and dignity.

"The purpose of these documents goes beyond the radio journalists' protest. We want to turn the spotlight on the deplorable state of the journalist's work in general," Angelov said in conclusion.

[10] BULGARIAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY CHAIRMAN SENDOV ENDS VISI

Kiev, November (BTA exclusive by Nikolai Koev) - Today was the last day of an official visit to Ukraine by a Bulgarian parliamentary delegation led by National Assembly Chairman Blagovest Sendov. Summing up the results of the visit at a joint news conference today, Ukrainian Supreme Council Chairman Alexandr Moroz and Academician Sendov said it was an important step toward the development of interparliamentary contacts, which is sure to boost Bulgarian-Ukrainian ties in general. Sendov stressed that the sides shared identical views on the most important issues discussed during the visit and said contacts should be more regular both on parliamentary and on government level. Blagovest Sendov brought to the fore Bulgaria's economic interests in cooperation with Ukraine, stressing the Ukrainian coal supplies, the Yamburg gas field and the Krivoy Rog plant. These issues are within the powers of the executive and yet the parliaments have a capacity to promote and monitor the processes of economic interaction, Sendov said. Responding to the lively interest of mass media in the attitude of the Bulgarian Parliament to Bulgaria's future entry into NATO, Sendov dwelled on the position on this matter of the parliamentary group of the ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP). He stressed the view of the MPs of BSP that Bulgaria should not rush into NATO before studying carefully its membership requirements. Commenting on this issue, Yordan Sokolov MP of the opposition Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) voiced the firm belief of Bulgaria's major opposition force that only entry into NATO can provide reliable national security guarantees. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) was also on the agenda. Sendov said Bulgaria's refusal to join the BSEC Parliamentary Assembly results from its understanding that the political dialogue in the region should develop within the framework of European structures, and economic ties - through active work within the BSEC. Today Blagovest Sendov met the members of the Supreme Council's committee on international affairs and links with the Commonwealth of Independent States. The Bulgarian side again brought to the fore its proposal that a Bulgarian cultural centre open in Bolgrad in what used to be a Bulgarian higher school. Blagovest Sendov also met the President of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Academician Boris Paton, to discuss with him the contacts between the two institutions. The sides were unanimous that in spite of the difficulties, the two academies should survive in the name of the future development of the two countries. This evening the Bulgarian delegation is expected back in Bulgaria.