News from Bulgaria / Mar 21, 96

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

Bulgarian Telegraph Agency Directory

EMBASSY OF BULGARIA - WASHINGTON D.C.

BTA - BULGARIAN TELEGRAPH AGENCY

21 March, 1996

CONTENTS

[01] BULGARIAN MINISTERS DEMAND BULGARIA'S EXCLUSION FROM VISA BLACKLIST

Sofia, March 20 (BTA) - At Bulgaria's request today the meeting of interior ministers and ministers of justice of the European Union and associated states from Central and Eastern Europe in the framework of the Justice/Internal Affairs Council included in its agenda the issue of EU's visa policy towards the associated states, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry said.

Bulgarian ministers Mladen Chervenyakov of Justice and Lyubomir Nachev of the Interior raised the problem of Bulgaria's inclusion in EU's visa black list which contradicts this country's statute as associated member and is in practice a discriminatory measure. The ministers urged that the EU takes a political decision and drops Bulgaria from this list as a first step to the introduction of visa-free requirements with EU member states.

During the discussions the Bulgarian position was backed by several EU members, which urged for speedy and just solution to the problem. Certain member states voiced satisfaction with Bulgaria's measures in immigration policy, which have had positive results for halting illegal immigration to these states. The participants made some recommendations for Bulgaria's future actions which would contribute for the speedy solution of the problem. The European commission represented by Commissioner Anita Gradin confirmed its readiness to cooperate for the sending of a group of EU experts to Bulgaria to study the matter and work out an action plan in cooperation with the Bulgarian party, the Foreign Ministry said.

[02] BULGARIA, GERMANY GERMAN SUPPORT FOR CLOSER TIES BETWEEN BULGARIA, EUROATLANTIC STRUCTURES AND FULL E.U. MEMBERSHIP

Sofia, March 20 (Iva Toncheva of BTA) - In an address to Bulgarian Parliament today German President Roman Herzog expressed his country's support for Bulgaria's efforts to forge closer ties with the Euro- Atlantic structures and gain full membership in the European Union. President Herzog arrived on an official visit here on Tuesday. "Bulgaria has a long way to go before it becomes a full EU member," said Herzog, stressing his conviction that this country will cope with the difficulties along the way.

"We Germans are convinced that the potential of your country and its people is far from being exhausted. I also believe that thanks to its geographical location in Europe, Bulgaria has and will have an important role to play as a bridge between North and South, East and West, Europe and Asia," said Roman Herzog.

In his address President Herzog dwelled at length on the long tradition of good German-Bulgarian relations. He underlined the first signs of economic recovery in Bulgaria, adding that it has much work to do. A most important purpose of his visit - the first by a German President after the beginning of reform in Bulgaria and Germany's unification is to express Germany's empathy with Bulgaria and the Bulgarians. "We Germans would like to show that friendship between the two countries is as strong as ever, even in hard times, and that Germany is ready to back Bulgaria along its chosen way," President Herzog said.

Germany is the biggest foreign investor in Bulgaria. In his address to Parliament Herzog spoke about the role of foreign, more specifically German, investment for Bulgaria's reform process. This was also the subject of a discussion between Parliamentary Deputy Chairperson Nora Ananieva and Roman Herzog. He was assured that Bulgaria would improve its foreign investment law and privatization regulations. Relations between the two parliaments were described as excellent. The parliamentary press office said Ananieva had assured Herzog that Bulgaria's foreign policy is oriented to the European and Euro-Atlantic structures. Special emphasis was put on Bulgaria's Balkan policy.

All forms of Balkan cooperation and Bulgaria's Balkan policy were discussed by Prime Minister Zhan Videnov and President Herzog. The German President praised and backed the Bulgarian initiative for a Balkan meeting of foreign ministers. The sides discussed bilateral relations and their development on the basis of economic interests and pragmatism in the light of Bulgaria's foreign policy orientation towards integration into the European structures, the Government spokesman said. Later today President Herzog met with Bulgarian students.

[03] FOREIGN MINISTER PIRINSKI MEETS GERMAN STATE SECRETARY

Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski today met with German State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Peter Hartmann, BTA learned from the Foreign Ministry's Information Department. The sides exchanged views on topical issues of international relations in Europe and NATO's enlargement. Pirinski and Hartmann discussed Bulgaria's initiative for regional cooperation in South-Eastern Europe. Germany supports Bulgaria's desire to put it into practice in conjunction with EU proposals and steps towards goodneighbourly relations, stability and cooperation in the region. The two foreign ministries will hold a series of consultations on issues of multilateral and bilateral interest.

[04] PM VIDENOV RECEIVES SIEMENS EXECUTIVE

Prime Minister Zhan Videnov today received Adolf Huetl, member of Siemens' Board of Directors. He is accompanying German President Roman Herzog on his visit to Bulgaria, the Government press office said. Contacts between Siemens and its Bulgarian partners have intensified, it was said at the meeting. Possibilities for cooperation in the power industry, telecommunications, industry and medical supplies were identified. Huetl stressed Bulgaria's key role in the Balkan energy system and expressed Siemens' wish to invest in Bulgarian production facilities, the press office also said.

[05] DEUTSCHE BANK TO SUPPORT THE REFORMS IN BULGARIAN TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Sofia, March 20 (BTA) - Deutsche Bank has confirmed its readiness to offer support for the reforms in the Bulgarian telecommunications, the Committee of Posts and Telecommunications said. Today Committee Chairman Lyubomir Kolarov received First Vice President of Deutsche Bank Peter Tils, who is on the delegation, led by German President Roman Herzog. At the meeting the changes in Bulgaria's economic development and last year's activation of the relations between Bulgaria and Germany were estimated in positive terms, a news release received at the BTA says.

[06] PARLIAMENT PASSES AMENDMENTS TO LABOUR CODE

Sofia, March 20 (BTA) - Parliament today passed on second reading amendments to the Labour Code, providing for employees to make social security contributions to the amount of 2% of their gross pay. The money will be added to social security contributions made by employers. The amendment does not concern people who only have workmen's compensation insurance.

In case a contract is terminated as a result of an employee's death, his/her spouse or children are entitled to assistance amounting to one minimum monthly wage; in case of an industrial accident death, the assistance is set at one and a half monthly wage, the MPs decided today.

Under the ammendments passed today, associate professors and second degree research associates will reach retirement age at 63, and professors, first degree senior research associates and PhDs will reach retirement age at 68. "These amendments place Bulgaria among the first in Europe in providing possibilities for highly qualified scholars to continue to work till the age of 68," said Yordan Shkolagerski, chair of the parliamentary Social Committee. According to him, these regulations deprive employers of the possibility to dismiss persons of academic rank but if necessary the academic community may terminate the contract.

[07] MASS PRIVATIZATION

More than 120 privatization funds have been established so far. They will start to accept investment vouchers of members of the public in less than three weeks' time, which will mark the start of the second stage of mass privatization. The number of funds exceeded by far the figure projected by the experts who put them at 30 to 50. Political parties, trade unions, companies, and public organizations create their own privatization funds. However, not all of them will be issued licences. The Commission on Securities and Stock Exchanges will decide whether the funds meet all the requirements. The taxes for getting a licence are yet another obstacle which the funds will have to overcome.

According to the Cabinet-approved list of charges, the licence for privatization funds with up to 100 million leva capital will cost at least 90,000 leva. Funds with capital of more than 500 million leva will have to pay the highest charge: 200,000 leva, with 0.01 per cent are added for any amount over 500 million leva.

Charges for registration of investment brokers are higher than those for privatization fund. Their amount will depend on the amount of the paid-up capital. Investment brokers with capital of up to 100 million leva will pay a 270,000 leva charge; the charge for brokers with capital of more than 500 million leva is 300,000 leva, with 0.01 per cent added for any amount over 500 million leva.

The charge for closure of a stock exchange is 500,000 leva, while that for privatization funds is 180,000 leva. The aim of the measure is to separate only serious participants in the process of mass privatization, experts say. In their view, the high charges for liquidation will minimize the risk for the ordinary people. It will also decrease the likelihood of the funds' being Ponzi scheme companies. More than 100,000 Bulgarians lost their money in such financial scams last year alone. As a result, many people now see pyramid structures in every joint-stock company and are afraid to participate in mass privatization.

Mass Privatization Centre chief Kalin Mitrev said privatization funds in Bulgaria will not be financial pyramids. Privatization funds emerged in the course of privatization in other former socialist countries and played a stabilizing role in the management of the economy, he said. Mitrev added that some swindlers may try to find loopholes but to claim that privatization funds are by definition pyramids is tantamount to sensationalism. The law in the form it was passed by Parliament provides sufficient guarantees against this," Kalin Mitrev said.

Seeking to restrict possibilities for frauds, the Securities Commission added a number of requirements to be met by candidates to set up privatization funds. This, however, sparked accusations of excessive regulation of the process. Before receiving a licence, the funds have to define a number of parameters of their future activities. Their protests are related mainly to the fact that it is impossible to know in advance the number of voucher books a fund will be able to attract.

Though operative statutory regulations ban privatization funds from advertizing their activities in the media prior to their registration, some of them have already launched covert campaigns in the press. Interviews, articles and other stories highlight the advantages of one privatization fund or another. The striving to attract as many voucher books as possible is already obvious. Pessimists, claiming that privatization funds will profit most from mass privatization, may turn out to be right.

[08] COAL MINERS GO ON STRIKE

[09] NEW BORDER CROSSINGS WITH GREECE TO OPEN BY 1998

A Bulgarian-Greek commission will decide where a third new crossing on the two countries' common border will be opened: in the area of Roudozem or Zlatograd, Hristo Arabadjiev of the National Security Service with the Interior Ministry said at a meeting of the National Assembly Economic Committee. The two other new border checkpoints have been definitively sited at Drama-Gotse Delchev and Kurdjali-the Makaza Pass. The mixed commission will also discuss a possible rail project for the Makaza area. The pass is part of Crete Corridor No. IX, which starts from Helsinki and passes through St Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev, Chisinau, Bucharest, Rousse, Veliko Turnovo and Gabrovo, forking from there to Stara Zagora, Haskovo, Kurdjali, the Makaza Pass and Alexandroupolis and to Plovdiv and Svilengrad. A feasibility study will be conduted of the prospective border crossings, which are to go into operation before the end of 1998. The National Security Service [which is in charge of passport control and logistics arrangements at border crossings] believes that the new checkpoints will be of local significance, according to Mr Arabadjiev. Of all 27 crossings on Bulgaria's borders, only ten are of key importance as they handle 65 per cent of the passenger traffic, said Luchezar Lalov of the Transport Ministry. Traffic will remain busiest across the checkpoints of Kapitan Andreevo and Koulata even after the opening of the three new crossings on the frontier with Greece. As a condition for future financing of the projects, the European Union wants the Interior Ministry to interdict the trafficking of narcotics, illegal aliens or criminals across Bilgaria, it emerged at the meeting. The establishment of a centralized information system will solve the problem, the National Security Service officer said.

[10] DAY OF FRANCOPHONIE MARKED WITH BOOK EXHIBITION

Sofia, March 20 (BTA) - The Bulgarian versions of 250 French books translated in the 1991-96 period and Bulgarian books translated into French are on display at the SS Cyril and Methodius National Library. The exhibition entitled "French Accents in Bulgarian Book Publishing" opened today. It is organized by the National Book Centre with the Culture Ministry, the French Embassy and the National Library to mark the Day of Francophonie, March 20.

Visitors may see works by Sartre, Camus, Baudelaire, Verlaine and Aragon translated into Bulgarian. Works by French Humanists are the centrepiece of the exhibition. It was announced that a collection of French poetry and Stephane Mallarme's autobiography are forthcoming. In 1991 Bulgaria was granted observer status in the Francophone Community. Two years later, at the fifth meeting of heads of state and government of the Francophone countries on Mauritius, Bulgaria was granted full membership. It is the first Slav member country and the 47th member of the Francophone Community.

The fifth Francophone summit approved a project for a Sofia-based regional Francophone centre for training of administrative and management personnel proposed by Bulgaria. This country received 1,000,000 French francs in seed money.

In December 1993 Bulgaria was admitted to the Agency for Cultural and Technical Cooperation among the Francophone countries. An Association of Bulgarian Francophone Journalists was registered in April 1994.

In November that year the Council of Ministers set up an Interdepartmental Commission on Francophonie which prepares and coordinates this country's participation in Francophone forums.

Bulgaria hosted the Europe Days of the International Union of French-Language Journalists and Press in May 1995. It is the first Eastern European country to host this event.

Also in May Sofia hosted the Europe Days of French-language press and French-language journalists, which date from 1992. Before that they had been held in France and Switzerland.

The Day of Francophonie has been regularly marked in Bulgaria since it was admitted to the Francophone Community. The French Cultural Institute helps this country organize exhibitions, book launches and screenings of French films.

At the opening of the exhibition today Deputy Culture Minister Georgi Konstantinov recalled that Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables" was the first book by a Western European writer translated into Bulgarian.

A seminar on problems of book publishing will be held on Thursday at the National Library as part of the observance of the Day of Francophonie.

[11] BUSINESS PRESS

Nine hail control bases in this country with 183 rocket launching pads are standing idle, "Continent" writes. If funds are not allocated immediately, 1,350,000 ha of land, of which 1,050,000 arable, will be left unprotected, the paper says. The problems to the Hail Control Directorate are five years old, according to its head Peter Pavlov, quoted by the paper. The official calls for 82 million leva in government subsidies. The paper recalls the success rate in hail control ran at 92% in former years.

Bulgartabak Holding Co. will invest 14,000 million leva in this year's tobacco crop, the press writes, quoting CEO Spas Gelemerov as saying in Kurdjali (southeastern Bulgaria, in the heart of a tobacco growing area). He took part in a national meeting on tobacco growing which discussed a development programme by the year 2000. The company will buy 90% of the tobacco harvest in this country.

It will take Bulgarian tobacco factories two months to make 200 million packets of cigarettes for Russia. 8,000 t of cigarettes have been ordered by Russian buyers. According to Deputy Agriculture Minister Mariya Lazarova, quoted by "Standart News", the output of Bulgarian cigarettes should be increased. She also believes exports can be slashed. This year Bulgartabak has received orders to import 36,000 t of tobacco, which is a record high amount, the paper says.

"New Competitor on Oil Market," reads a headline in the financial daily "Pari", capping a report on an agreement between Motor Oil Hellas S.A. and Aramco of Saudi Arabia to set up a joint venture in which each will have a 50% share. The paper speculates on the joint venture's future and interests in the Balkans. According to officials of the joint venture, fears that the company will pose obstacles to building a trans-Balkan oil pipeline, are unsubstantiated. The paper also reports the group has intentions to expand markets, using the Balkans as a bridge to Europe.

According to Borislav Dionissiev, President of Bulgarian-based Bulvar Enterpises, which has a share in Bulgarian-Greek petrol stations here, a new chain of petrol stations would help create competition and abolish price monopolies, Dionissiev says.

[12] TRANSPORT SERVICE BOURGAS-POTI STARTS OPERATION

At the Bourgas port (on the Black Sea) arrived for handling the first ship which launched into operation the long-expected service between the Bulgarian and the Georgian ports. The line will be serviced by the 82 m-long Bulgarian cargo ship "Deni" which is property of the private company Balkanfish.

In early April will be opened also the Ro-Ro service between Bourgas and Poti which will transfer cars and trucks of the SO MAT company.