EDC warning

·  AN imprudent price policy might turn Bulgaria from an exporter into an importer of electricity. CEZ Bulgaria regional manager Tomas Huner told the media this on November 17, the occasion of the first anniversary of the signing of the contracts on the privatization of 67 per cent of the Sofia-City, Sofia-Region and Pleven electricity distribution companies (EDC). Not only EDCs but also producers of electricity, which are state-owned have problems with regulation because the existing capacities are not being repaired to the necessary degree, Huner said. The state raised the power prices on October 1 by 16 per cent, which the EDCs said was not enough to cover their investment expenses.

9-year low

·  FOR the first time since 1991, unemployment has been declining for an uninterrupted period of ten months within a calendar year (2005). In October, the unemployment rate reached 10.43 per cent, the lowest level reported since mid-1996, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy said on November 17, quoting figures of the National Employment Agency. The decrease in unemployment was due to the larger number of persons who started work under employment programmes and measures. In October 2005, eight Bulgarian regions had unemployment rates below the national average, and in two of the regions - Sofia City (2.88 per cent) and Gabrovo (5.65 per cent) the levels hit a six-year low.

Benefit limit

·  THE entitlement to welfare benefits should not last longer than a year or a year and a half, Labour and Social Policy Minister Emilia Maslarova suggested on November 17, speaking to reporters in Parliament.
"My aspiration is that we propose a legislative amendment as early as the beginning of next year, setting a time limit for people's entitlement to welfare benefits," she said. Maslarova believes that "everyone should seek to extricate themselves from the `socially disadvantaged' category because Bulgaria cannot pay indefinitely for able-bodied men and women".

Iraq restoration

· BULGARIA would provide 1.6 million leva in grant aid for the reconstruction of Iraq, mostly in the form of humanitarian aid, Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski told Parliament on November 18. At the international donor conference in Madrid on October 23 and 24 2003, Bulgaria promised to provide indirect financial assistance amounting to a million US dollars. In fulfilment of this commitment, in 2003 the former cabinet adopted a decree, amended and supplemented in 2004, under which Bulgaria would provide aid to the tune of 1.6 million leva for the reconstruction of Iraq, Oresharski said. A consignment of medicines has already been sent.
The decree also provides for the training of 20 Iraqi students and postgraduate students at Bulgarian higher educational establishments starting from the 2005/2006 academic year, as well as for the training of Iraqi security officers by the Interior Ministry.

Danube Bridge 2

·  TRANSPORT Minister Petar Mutafchiev received in Vidin on November 20 the building permit for the entire infrastructure of Bulgarian territory leading to Danube Bridge 2. The bridge will connect Vidin and the Romanian town of Calafat. This document marks the beginning of first-stage construction and construction works providing the approach to the bridge. Mutafchiev said the Government was determined to keep all deadlines for the construction of the bridge, which is to be built in a period of 38 months.
"This will be a European bridge, which connects two European countries. I hope that its construction will bring a more intensive development of the economy," Mutafchiev stated. He expressed hopes that the implementation procedures would be transparent so that there would be "no superfluous court cases".

Power guarantee

·  THE Cabinet gave its agreement on November 17 that the World Bank Group's Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) issue a guarantee in favour of the investor and the financing institutions of the project for the construction of a substitution plant at the Maritsa Iztok 1 thermal power plant.