The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is ready to provide expert assistance to Bulgaria and to help along the development of a student lending system and risk investment funds. That emerged during a meeting of Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Nikolai Vassilev and Deputy Economy Minister Sofia Kassidova with Peter Woicke, IFC Executive Vice President and Managing Director of the World Bank Group in Washington. The Bulgarian government expects that the IFC will channel funds to the development of stock markets and risk investment, Vassilev said after the meeting. Vassilev and Kassidova also met with Johannes Linn, World Bank Director for Europe and Central Asia. Vassilev presented the governmental
privatization strategies of Bulgartabac Holding, the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company, Biochim Bank, and the State Insurance Institute (DZI). The World Bank assessed the Bulgarian structural reforms as good, saying that the country has surpassed experts' expectations, Vassilev said after the meeting. A three-year programme of the IFC for Bulgaria will be approved at the end of the summer. The major parametres of the strategy for supporting Bulgaria, which will be subject to discussion, too. The financial aid designed for the next three years is USD 450 M.