Bulgarian press review, January 4, 2010

Press Review
Sofia, January 4


ECONOMY

"Standard News" leads with an interview with Prime Minister Boyko Borissov entitled "Private Business Will Get Us Out of the Mire", He says that he stands behind each and every step of Finance Minister Simeon Djankov and that Djankov did the impossible in the situation he was placed in. "We saved Bulgaria from bankruptcy," says the Prime Minister.
He also says that the Interior Ministry is launching a large-scale operation against what he calls "neighborhood bandits".

***

In "Dnevnik", business representatives are quoted as saying that the New Year will be difficult for some of the most important sectors of the Bulgarian economy and an improvement should not be expected before the second half of 2010. Economic analysts are unanimous that the worst problems will be the shortage of cash, lack of foreign investment and unemployment which will continue to grow to some 11 per cent. Two key sectors, construction and tourism, should be prepared for a tough year, says "Dnevnik". "The forecast is gloomy: there is no construction and the order books are thin," says Ivan Boykov, Executive Director of the Chamber of Construction. He says further that the big hopes are in government procurement but the infrastructure projects cannot offset completely the loss of investment by the private sector. The Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria expects some recovery in agriculture and in the green energy industry. Their forecasts are also optimistic for the pharmaceutical and the food industry, and pessimistic for machine building.
The paper also observes that the banking sector is much more optimistic than the rest. United Bulgarian Bank CEO Stilian Vutev expects a growth in lending of 7-8 per cent. He believes that towards the middle of the year the level of interest on credits will start to be affected favorably by the measures that the government is expected to take. Postbank CEO Assen Yagodin comments that there is no economic logic in having the price of deposits go further up, which is certain to keep from rising further or even push down the interest on credits.
Agricultural producers and the food industry disagree with the grim forecasts, "Dnevnik" writes further. The farming sector and the processing industry connected with it were the only ones to see a modest growth in 2009, and people in this business have a reason to expect a stronger growth in 2010. Last year had relatively good weather conditions and grain producers saw good financial results.

***

Close to 86 million leva in state receivables were collected as at the end of November 2009 which is half the previous year's amount, the ex-Executive Director of the defunct State Receivables Agency, Dimana Miteva, tells "Klassa". As of January 1, 2010, the Agency is part of the structure of the National Revenue Agency. Miteva says that the downward trend in the collection of receivables has persisted for two years now. In 2008 the Agency reported revenue of just over 185 million leva, down from 281 million in 2007. The reason for the decline in revenue is that businesses set aside less resource for acquisition of immoveable and moveable assets which the Agency auctions, Miteva say.



***

In the best-case scenario, it will take one more painful year for the crisis to aggravate further, before a recovery is anywhere in sight, financial analyst Krassimir Angarski tells "Troud". He says that the State is stifled by an oversize administration.

***

Bulgaria's recovery from the economic downturn will be L-shaped, Lyubomir Hristov of the Managing Board of the Institute of Certified Financial Consultants, says in a "Dnevnik" interview. The paper recalls that Hristov was recently named by Prime Minister Boyko Borissov as one of his three economic advisors, along with Kristalina Georgieva of the World Bank and Ilian Mihov of the INSEAD graduate business school.
Hristov expects poverty among the elderly to become a national problem in Bulgaria - financial and social - in 2020-25.

***

The crisis held up the upward movement of local taxes and charges, "Sega" writes in a front-page story. Disproving the expectations of the National Association of Municipalities, the vast majority of municipalities are keeping unchanged their taxes or only slightly adjusting them this year. Even at places where the mayors said before the New Year that they would have to increase taxes to be able to pay the debts, taxes have stayed unchanged. At most places the local authorities are looking for additional sources of funding.

THE HOME SCENE

Under the headline "Borissov Picks the Papandreou Model for Himself", "Troud" writes that Prime Minister Borissov is very much likely to borrow the Greek model where the government leader is also the nation's top diplomat. The story quotes the Prime Minister as saying in a "Troud" interview that he would name on January 13-14 "the handsome and smart man" who would take over from Rumiana Jeleva as Foreign Minister. ["Handsome and smart man" was first used by Foreign Minister Jeleva when reporters asked her who would inherit her office when she becomes Bulgaria's representative in the European Commission]."But with this definition she gave, I see nobody other than myself! How could I tell you who are more handsome and smarter than me," said the Prime Minister.
"Troud" observes that it is no secret that Boyko Borissov likes much his Greek counterpart George Papandreou.

***

"Douma" leads with a story entitled "Crisis Affects Birth Rates". The paper quotes knowledgeable sources as saying that the baby boom will peak around Easter after which the majority of Bulgarian families will be unlikely to plan having more children. This will be an immediate effect of the economic crisis and the insecurity of jobs and incomes, the paper says.

***

"Douma" also reports that as of this year family doctors will be paid 7.70 leva for each checkup of a child, up from 5.30 leva in 2009. Like before, no fee will be charged for a child's visit to the doctor. Also from January 1, two vaccines have been added to the national children's vaccination calendar and parents will not be charged for these: a pneumococcal vaccine and the 5-component combination vaccine (against polio, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and Haemophilus influenza type B).


***

There is an idea for a building in central Sofia that currently seats the party HQ of the National Movement for Surge and Stability (NMSS), to be taken for government use, unidentified sources of the ruling majority told "Klassa". The reason is that Sofia doesn't have enough buildings for the state administration and NMSS is no longer represented in Parliament and has no reason to enjoy the luxury of such a big building, the paper writes.

***

A good alternation of Left and Right government produces the best result for a country, Spanish Ambassador to Bulgaria Jorge Fuentes Monzonis-Vilallonga says in a "Douma" interview. A democratic country which is a member of the EU should have no areas of insecurity, the diplomat says.

***

"President Georgi Purvanov awards an order a week," "Sega" says in a front-page story. Over his one-and-a-half presidential mandate, he has presented a total of 592 state orders and at least 40 have received the Presidential Badge of Honour - an award he introduced in 2002 and presents at his discretion. Only in his first two years as President, he presented as many Balkan Range Orders (142) - the highest state award - as his predecessors Peter Stoyanov and Zhelyu Zhelev did together. By the end of Purvanov's second term as president in 2011, another 200 recipients or more will get state honors, "Sega" says.

***

"Monitor" and "Telegraf" quote unidentified police sources as saying that one more member of the group of kidnappers known by the name law-enforcers gave them - The Impudent - which police recently broke up, has agreed to cooperate with the law-enforcers. This is no other than the suspected ring leader, Ivaylo "Yozhi" Evtimov. He reportedly told prosecutors that he was not the gang's master, was only put in command for some of the kidnappings and three other persons were the true masterminds but they were not among the men arrested by police.


***

"Novinar" leads with the new hijacking of a vessel with Bulgarian seamen in the Gulf of Aden. It quotes Prodan Radanov of the Bulgarian company that hires seamen for international crews (Zodiac), as saying that all 25 crew of Asian Glory are safe and sound. Zodiac has spoken to the Bulgarian crew members but have no information about the kidnappers. The Foreign Ministry has confirmed that no contact has been established with the pirates and no talks on a ransom have started, the paper says.

***

The government has stepped up its efforts to collect 20 billion US dollars that Turkey owes for the property of what has come to be known as "Thracian Bulgarians", Minister without Portfolio Bozhidar Dimitrov tells "Ataka". Dimitrov is quoted in a front-page story.
"Thracian Bulgarians" are Bulgarians who migrated from Eastern Thrace and Asia Minor to Bulgaria in the wake of the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913. They left behind property for billions of dollars for which no compensation has been paid despite an agreement signed in 1929 and repeated declarations by the two countries to deal with the issue.



Links to some Bulgarian info websites in English:

· http://www.bta.bg/site/en/indexe.shtml
· http://www.novinite.com/index.php
· http://www.focus-fen.net/

Most discussed topics of the day – Sofia, January 4, 2009

· ”I expect that some sectors of the economy will do better this year than they did before the crisis,” Bulgaria’s Finance Minister and Deputy PM Simeon Djankov said in an interview with the national television. Being a small but financially-stable country, Bulgaria stands all chances to become an investment center in SE Europe, he went on.


· Bulgaria PM Boyko Borissov has stated that the coming days will be “black” for neighborhood bandits as he announced the start of the ‘Operation Apashite’ by the Interior ministry.
Borisov said that the number one goal for the Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov was to target the robbers who the whole country complains about. He added that the government would “chase the bandits to their holes”.