Festive Steam Train Ride with Santa Claus from Gorna Oryahovitsa to Pleven
In celebration of the upcoming Christmas and New Year holidays, Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) is offering a special festive journey for train enthusiasts
The CEO of the Bulgarian State Railways BDZ Yordan Nedev, who resigned earlier on Wednesday, has done so because of the Finance Ministry, Nedev himself explained.
Shortly after Nedev's resignation from the CEO position of the highly indebted Bulgarian Railways, Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski explained the manager's move with "personal reasons".
However, Nedev has made it clear that he resigned because of the crisis in July and early August in which Finance Minister Simeon Djankov withdrew the legally allocated monthly state subsidy of BGN 14 M keeping the railway company alive.
Nedev had been complaining of a denigrating treatment on part of Djankov and the Finance Ministry before he chose to step down on Wednesday.
The CEO post at BDZ will be temporarily taken over by the present financial and administrative director of the company Velik Zanchev, the Bulgarian National Radio reported.
Nedev recently declared that passenger trains will have to stop in mid-August if the government does not restore the legal subsidy of the severely indebted company.
The Finance Minister suspended the state subsidy for BDZ in mid-July because the company was not paying installments on a state-guaranteed loan of USD 80 M taken from the World Bank in 1995.
Bulgaria's Finance Minister Simeon Djankov agreed to restore the subsidy on August 6, 2012, but only after the BDZ management agreed to provide more than 1000 real estate properties as a guarantee of the loan repayment that could be disposed of at any moment by the Finance Ministry.
Djankov had given the BDZ Holding one weekend to come up with new reforms to save the company; this happened as BDZ was about to collapse financially as a result of Djankov's decision to withhold the BGN 14 M subsidy for the state railways in July even though BDZ is entitled to it by law.
In recent weeks, there has been ongoing concern regarding the state's expenses for next year, with projections showing that costs far exceed available funds
The Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) has voiced strong opposition to a proposed 10% tax on banks' excess profits, citing concerns that it would destabilize the financial sector
Tourist interest in Christmas and New Year holiday packages is exceptionally high this year
Economist Rumen Galabinov has stated that Bulgaria's potential future membership in the Eurozone could significantly benefit the country's economy
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for Bulgaria in the third quarter of 2024 grew by 2.4% compared to the same period in 2023
Remote work has become one of the most important trends in recent years.
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