DEPUTY PM:USD 600 M FROM PRIVATIZATION BY 2002

Business | October 2, 2001, Tuesday // 00:00

The Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Nikolay Vassilev and the Privatization Agency management presented their privatization priorities at a news conference on October 2. Vassilev announced that he expects at least USD 600 M cash in proceeds from privatization by next year. In this figure, Vasilev included the revenue from the future sale of the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company and the Bulgartabac Tobacco Holding. The state will only keep the Kozloduy Nuclear plant, the air traffic control authority, the railway infrastructure and several other companies. The privatization of the gas supplier Bulgargaz is also being considered. `A total of 1,780 companies have been prepared for privatization and the procedures can start right now,` Vassilev said at the news conference. A new bill on state-owned assets privatization will be moved at the Cabinet`s meeting during the week. The bill eliminates the negotiations with a potential buyer as a method of privatization and any possibilities for reconsidering the parameters of a deal once it has been finalized. It also removes all preferences for the management buy-out companies. `A special authority in charge of post-privatization control will be established,` Vassilev added. Asked whether it will be only a new unit or a whole department, the Economy Minister said that it will be `a new person`. `The Director of the Privatization Agency Apostolov will sign the deals but will not reconsider the deals,` Vassilev added. All privatization departments of the ministries will be closed down except that in the Ministry of Economics. Mass privatization is scheduled to end in the next 12 months. After that the Mass Privatization Center will be closed down or taken over by another structure. `These days the Ministry of Economy will be ready with a bill for an electronic register of the compensatory vouchers and mass privatization vouchers, `Deputy Economy Minister Kaloyan Ninov said at the press conference. `Transparency, speed and economic efficiency will be the dominant principles of the Privatization Agency,` according to Apostolov. `The Bulgarian Government will provide full support for the completion of the privatization,` Vassilev concluded.

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