VARNA, Bulgaria - Rover group, a unit of Bayerische Motoren-Werke AG, officially opened a Bulgarian factory on Friday for the production of Maestro cars. Bulgarian President Zhelyu Zhelev and Britain's Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Lord Fraser of Camyllie, attended the lavish ceremony in the Black Sea port of Varna.
"This is a rare opportunity to produce Rover cars in Bulgaria," said Rodacar AD President Philip Burley. Rover, which started looking at this project in 1989, set up a joint manufacturing firm with the Daru group of companies - Daru Car Ltd, which is Bulgaria's importer of BMW cars, the Bank of Agricultural Credit and Vitosha Insurance.
Under the deal, the Rover group holds a majority stake in the joint company, which in March became Rodacar AD, capitalised at 300 million levs ($4.5 million). The Bank of Austria agreed to extend a $7.5 million loan to Rodacar AD on Friday. "This is our first loan to the private sector in Bulgaria and we are sure it marks the beginning of a long-term relation with Rodacar," said Jeff Duncanson, representative of the Bank of Austria - London branch.
The factory began manufacturing its Maestro vehicles in Bulgaria on July 3 and has so far produced some 200 cars. "We plan to produce some 1,700 vehicles this year, which will be sold in Bulgaria. In 1996 we will produce 6,500 cars and hope to reach 10,000 cars in 1997," said Burley. The cars will initially be sold in Bulgaria and later in the Balkan region and to the Commonwealth of Independent States.
KIEV - Moscow's former East European allies, the Baltic states and the Ukraine on Friday largely dismissed President Boris Yeltsin's warning against joining NATO and pledged to continue moving closer to the Alliance. Officials at NATO headquarters expressed surprise, saying eventual enlargement would in no way hurt Russia.
Germany said the expansion process would continue and vowed to build a "special partnership" with the Kremlin. Yeltsin's outburst at a Moscow news conference was his most forthright denunciation of NATO's plans to expand its membership into eastern Europe. The plan's backers, he said, were "making a major political mistake. The flame of war would burst out across the whole of Europe".
In Poland, where the government hopes to be technically and militarily ready to join NATO within three years, a senior official said he hoped Russia would eventually alter its confrontational view of the Alliance. "Our perception is entirely different from that of Yeltsin. We don't view NATO as an aggressive institution, we see it as a stabilising factor," Andrzej Ananicz, Secretary of State in President Lech Walesa's office, told Reuters. "We hope that in Russia also the perception of a united Europe and the prospect of integration will prevail over an anachronistic approach towards keeping Europe divided."
Bulgarian President Zhelyu Zhelev, a keen advocate of closer ties with the West, told visiting Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev on Thursday that his country reserved the right to join NATO regardless of Moscow's misgivings. He said Bulgarian membership should not be construed as an anti-Russian gesture.
The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, occupied and ruled by the Soviet Union for 50 years, were the most vocal in denouncing Yeltsin's comments. "We express our conviction that we want to join NATO as quickly as possible. NATO is the best guarantee of stability in Europe," Lithuania's Deputy Foreign Minister Alibinas Januska told Reuters. "Such aggressive statements from Russia only increase our concerns and strengthen our desire to join NATO." The leaders of all three Baltic states, meeting in the Estonian capital Tallinn on Thursday, called for the earliest possible admission. The three have expressed concern over reports that NATO will take in only one or two new members when it expands, with the Baltics unlikely to be included.
In the Ukraine, accused by Yeltsin of blocking an accord to split the Black Sea Fleet, the head of the Security Council Volodymyr Gorbulin said there was no reason for Kiev to alter its more favourable attitude to expansion which it has adopted recently. The Ukraine has been one of the most active participants in NATO's Partnership for Peace programme offering co-operation with former Eastern Bloc states. Foreign Minister Hennady Udovenko is to visit Brussels next week to work out a separate programme of closer co-operation with the Alliance.
In tiny Moldova, on the border with Romania, Foreign Minister Mihai Popov told a news conference that his country was neutral and did not regard NATO membership as a goal. However, nor did it want to be a "buffer to serve someone else's interests". Russia's most stalwart foreign policy ally on former Soviet territory, Belarus, remained opposed to expansion. President Alexander Lukashenko told Latvia's visiting Prime Minister on Thursday that he was not worried by his northern neighbour becoming a NATO member but he still did not "accept the tendency towards mechanically extending NATO eastwards".
Another Russian ally, Kazakhstan, offered no comment on Yeltsin's remarks. But Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted President Nursultan Nazarbayev as saying Kazakhstan would do everything to boost military co-operation with Moscow.
SOFIA - Bulgaria's parliament said on Friday the country's central bank shared responsibility for the spread of get-rich-quick schemes but ruled out state compensation for citizens who had lost savings. "An important part of the responsibility for the existence of these schemes lies with the supervisory board of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB)," said a report by the parliamentary commission investigating the pyramid schemes. "The board did not once, on its own initiative, check up on illegal banking activities," said the report, adding that warnings by BNB governor Todor Vulchev and other senior officials about the risks to investors went unheeded.
In May half a dozen pyramid funds in the Black Sea port of Varna collapsed, triggering angry protests from investors who together lost more than 1.5 billion levs ($22.7 million). They set up a "tent-town" of protest in the centre of Varna and demanded the resignation of ministers and judges. The commission, set up in response to the events in Varna, also took to task the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of the Interior and the prosecutors' office for failing to curb the schemes.
Pyramid schemes involve using income from new investors to buy back shares from old investors at ever-rising prices. They have proved popular in several other ex-communist countries, including Russia and Romania. "(The pyramid structures) are a real threat to citizens' savings, to the stability of the country's financial system and to the general national interest," the commission said. However, it said that in a market economy people were ultimately responsible for how they spent their money and added that there were no legal grounds for state compensation of investors' losses.
Some of the founders of the pyramids are now under arrest while others are being investigated by Bulgarian authorities with the co-operation of Interpol, the commission said. A new treasury paper and stock exchange law, adopted in June, has closed a gap in the regulation of investment funds' activities, it said.
SOFIA - A new Bulgarian-EU joint parliamentary committee set up to foster closer co-operation urged Sofia on Friday to accelerate its economic reforms. Speaking on the final day of the committee's first session, Nikolai Kamov, president of the Bulgarian delegation, said the committee's recommendations included bolstering the EU's economic aid activities through its PHARE programme.
EU parliamentary delegates stressed the need to attract more foreign investment and to improve access for Bulgarian goods entering the European Union, Kamov said. Bulgarian legislation has to be brought into line with EU standards as a stepping stone to full membership, Kamov said. Foreign Minister Georgi Pirinski has said Bulgaria will draw up a national strategy in the next few months for the country's integration into European structures.
The parliamentary committee will hold two sessions each year - one in Sofia and one in either Strasbourg or Brussels. Its next session will be held in March 1996.
Bulgaria became an associate member of the EU in February, along with the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania. Poland and Hungary also have associate membership, which all regard as a vital step towards the ultimate goal of full membership.
SOFIA - The First Bulgarian Stock Exchange (FBSE) delisted Anjel AD and Kaspi AD from its floor after the two companies had failed to comply with the bourse's listing requirements, the FBSE said. "Anjel AD and Kaspi AD are delisted from trading on FBSE," an FBSE official told Reuters. The two companies were banned from the FBSE floor because they failed to supply regular information on their balance sheets and fulfil commitments to investors.
The FBSE was the first bourse to introduce listing requirements three years ago. "No deals with their shares were registered on the FBSE," said the official. Angel AD was listed on the FBSE on June 30, 1994 with some two billion levs share capital as a construction and real estate company. Kaspi AD was listed on the FBSE on March 1, 1994 with eight million levs capital.
The exchange listed the shares Touristsportbank (TSB), Sofia Pawn House (SPH) and Black Sea Technological Group (BSTG), said the official who declined to be named. TSB listed its current share capital of 500 million levs and also its increase to one billion levs, which is still in progress. The BSTG, which is involved in research, extraction and marketing of fuels and in shipping, has listed 11.537 million levs share capital. The SPH listed 100 million levs share capital.
SOFIA - Bulgaria approved a draft bill on trade in goods and technologies last week that can be used for both civil and military purposes in a bid to upgrade its legal base and to meet the European Union's legal requirements, a cabinet official said. "The government approved today a draft bill on trade with dual-purpose goods and technologies due to replace the current regime, adopted through a cabinet decree in August 1993," Minister of Justice Mladen Cherveniakov told reporters.
Under the bill, the traders of dual-purpose goods and technologies are to be licensed by the Ministry of Trade, Cherveniakov said. The list of the goods and technologies is to be prepared by the government. Fines, varying from 50,000 to 500,000 levs, will be imposed on non-licensed physical persons and up to five times the whole transaction on non-licensed legal entities, Cherveniakov said. The draft bill also provides more severe measures for law violation including a two to eight year jail sentence and fines of 500,000 levs to one million levs, Cherveniakov said.
Under the draft bill control over trade in dual-purpose goods and technologies will be exercised by the ministries of trade and finance. The draft bill will be passed on to parliament for approval.
SALONIKA, Greece - Greece said a firm would be set up soon to oversee construction of a pipeline to pump Russian crude oil to the north of the country through Bulgaria. "Very soon, maybe in 30 days, creation of the company to take on this major project could take place," Greek Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias told a news conference. Papoulias was speaking on Friday after meeting his Russian counterpart Andrei Kozyrev, who was in Greece's second city to sign economic protocols following talks in Bulgaria.
"The next stage is a study, and then very soon (we will) implement the study," Papoulias said. He gave no further details. Under an existing plan, the oil from the Urals would travel to the northern port of Alexandroupolis along a 300-km (180- mile) pipeline from Bulgaria's Black Sea port of Burgas.
The underground pipeline, which would have a capacity of 600,000 barrels a day, would allay Russian fears about tough new Turkish maritime controls on oil tankers as the crude would bypass the Bosphorus.
SOFIA - Bulgaria's monthly consumer price inflation slowed to 0.5 percent in August from 1.51 percent in July, the National Statistics Institute figures show.
SOFIA - The Governing Board of the National Bank of Bulgaria has authorised the amalgamation of Commercial Bank Biochim, Serdika Commercial Bank and Sofia Bank into a Biochim Inc., BTA reported. The central bank management has licensed Biochim commercial bank to effect all types of domestic and international banking transactions under the Banks and Lending Act.
SOFIA - The international road between the bridge over the River Danube between Rousse and Veliko Turnovo will be entirely overhauled by 1999 to meet the current European standards, BTA reported. The first-stage construction is to be completed in 1996-1997, at a cost of some 3 million levs per kilometre. The four-year project will be co-financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the public purse.
SOFIA - Bulgaria's central government budget deficit widened to 41.806 billion levs on August 31, or 85.8 percent of planned for this year, the Ministry of Finance reported. The consolidated government budget, including the central government budget and social security and judicial system budget, showed a 40.199 billion levs deficit on August 31 or 84.6 percent of planned for the whole year. The largest share of spending still went to interest payments on domestic and government debt as revenue from income tax collection on individuals and companies improved.
SOFIA - Bulgarian Brady bonds eased from Thursday's levels on the international sovereign debt market as IMF funding still remained suspended, traders said. Collateralised Discount Bonds (Discs) were bid at 49.75 and 50.0 cents, softer on Thursday's 50.0 and 50.125 cents. Discs were offered at 50.25 and 50.5 cents, easing from 50.5 and 50.625 cents. Interest Arrears Bonds (IABs) bids eased to 43.75 cents from 44.0 and 44.125 cents on Thursday. IABs were offered at 44.25 and 44.5 cents, slightly down on Thursday's bids of 44.375 and 44.5 cents. Front Loaded Interest Reduction Bonds (FLIRBs) were bid at 25.5 cents, easing on Thursday's 25.5 and 25.625 cents. FLIRBs offers also softened to 26.0 and 26.25 cents from 26.25 and 26.375 cents.
SOFIA - The Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) open market operations turnover with commercial banks rose to 51.446 billion levs last week from 38.101 billion levs previous week, the BNB said. The BNB said it had struck a total of 130 repo deals with straight repos totalling 26.071 billion levs and reverse repos worth of 25.312 billion levs. The central bank made seven final sales of treasury paper worth 63 million levs but made no final purchases this week, the BNB said. The BNB treasury securities portfolio rose to 35.535 billion levs today from 34.972 billion levs on September 1, the BNB said.
SOFIA - Bulgaria's Ministry of Finance issue of two billion levs floating coupon five-year T-notes was 48 percent sold at Friday's auction with average yield reaching 35.82 percent, the central bank said. The semi-annual coupon of the issue was set equal to the central bank's key central interest rate (CIR) for the period to maturity on September 7, 2000. The issue was offered with no minimum acceptable price to enable financial institutions to bid below par and get a higher yield on the discount. The ministry can reject unreasonably low bids. Two financial institutions presented bids for 960 million levs at an average price of 93.81 percent of par and the ministry approved all bids at that price. Settlement for the auction would be made on Thursday, September 14 at the average accepted price, the central bank said.
24 Chasa Newspaper - Prime minister Zhan Videnov told the joint Bulgaria-EU parliamentary committee that Bulgaria was ready to take more active part in the dialogue for the resolution of the crisis in former Yugoslavia.
24 Chasa Newspaper - Bulgaria and Russia remained divided on the use of force by NATO in rump Yugoslavia after talks between Bulgarian President Zhelyu Zhelev and visiting Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev.
24 Chasa Newspaper - The cabinet approved a draft bill on trade in goods with both civil and military application, under which traders are to be licensed by the Trade Ministry.
24 Chasa Newspaper - Bulgaria officially inaugurates today the factory of Rover group in the Black Sea port of Varna, which planned to produce some 1,647 Maestro cars by year-end.
24 Chasa Newspaper - The Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) new governor, due to be appointed in January, will be chosen between BNB deputy governor Lyubomir Filipov and Bulbank (Bulgarian Foreign Trade Bank) director Chavdar Kanchev, top bankers said.
24 Chasa Newspaper - Bulgaria's budget deficit rose by 706 million levs to 41.806 billion levs for the first eight months of the year, reaching 85.8 percent of planned deficit for 1995. Revenues totalled some 118 billion levs against expenditures amounting to 160 billion levs, finance ministry officials said.
Standart Newspaper - Bulgaria's largest oil refinery Neftochim will be probably included in the list of enterprises earmarked for mass privatisation, refinery officials said.
Pari Newspaper - The IMF Board of Directors will discuss in December a report on Bulgaria, prepared by the IMF representative in Bulgaria Russell Kincaid.
SLOVENIA
Dnevnik Newspaper - Slovenian national television station RTV will restart transmissions to border areas, which were cut due to financial problems.
SLOVAKIA
Sme Newspaper - The law on stategic companies could lead to many lawsuits when companies feel damaged by state inrerference.
ROMANIA
Romania Newspaper - Government plans to create around 300 centres to collect privatisation coupons across Romania and move will only delay mass selloff further.
Libertatea Newspaper - Bucharest city council approved terms of contract with McDonald's on building five fast-food restaurants.
CZECH REPUBLIC
Hospodarske Noviny Newspaper - This year's expected budget surplus should be used to pay off part of the state debt, Finance Minister Ivan Kocarnik said. Kocarnik added that he expected economic growth of 3.6 percent this year and 4.4 percent in 1996.
Mlada Fronta Dnes Newspaper - The Czech Agricultural Chamber will request an official ban on the import of Belgian and Polish potatoes.
Telegraf Newspaper - The government will meet to discuss state- subsidised interest rates for mortgages at the end of September.
HUNGARY
Magyar Hirlap Newspaper - Hungary will receive a minimum of ECU 85 million in PHARE support annually between 1995 and 1999. This is the outcome of negotiations conducted this week between Sipke Brouwer, director of the European Commission in charge of foreign relations and representatives of the foreign ministry and the ministry of industry and trade.
Magyar Hirlap Newspaper - The National Bank of Hungary (MNB) has announced that it will close down its London-based subsidiary, the Hungarian International Bank Ltd effective December 31, 1996. Its operations will be terminated as MNB is eliminating its involvement in commercial banks.
Magyar Hirlap Newspaper - From October foreigners can be employed by Hungarian employers only if such needs have been signalled 60 days in advance. Job exchange centres must also condsider whether any Hungarian can be hired for the position. Job exchange centres must also consider whether any Hungarian can be hired for the position. Those who are members of a supervisory board of companies with majority foreign stake need no approval from the job centres.
WORLD SPOT RATES 1700 GMT
1USD = 1.4778 DEM
1USD = 1.2154CHF
1USD = 98.83 JPY
1USD = 5.0808 FRF
1USD = 10.3945 ATS
1GBP = 1.5447 USD
1USD = 68.120
1GBP = 105.16
1DEM = 45.891
1CHF = 55.631
1ATS = 6.5131
100JPY = 68.120
ENGLISH LANGUAGE MOVIES IN SOFIA
Evropa Palace, 34 Alabin St. - Caspar (Kristina Richie, Bill Pullman, Eric Idol - 13, 15, 17, 19), While You Were Sleeping (Sandra Bullock, Peter Gallegher , Bill Pullman, Glynis Johnes, Jack Warden - 20.45)
Modern Theatre, 26 Maria Luisa St. - Bad Boys (Martin Lawrence, Will Smith, Tea Leoni - 14.30, 17, 19.30)
Vlaikova, 19 Tsar Ivan Asen St. - Bethoven (13.30, Sat-Sun - 12), Rob Roy (Jessica Lange, Liam Neeson, Eric Stolz, John Hurt, Tim Roth, Brian Cox - 15, 17.30, 20)
Serdika, Levski Sq. - Don Juan de Marco (Faye Dunaway, Geraldine Pailhas, Johnny Depp, Marlon Brando - 14, 16, 18, 20)
Novo Kino Slaveikov, Slaveikov Sq. - Richie Rich (10.30, 13), Johnny Mnemonic (Keanu Reeves, Dolph Lundgren - 15), Rob Roy (17, 19.30)
Iztok, across from hotel Pliska -Caspar (13, 15, 17), Don Juan de Marco (19, 21)
Urvich - Corrina, Corrina (Whoopi Goldberg, Ray Layotta - 15, 17, 19; Wen-Thur - cinema closed)
Rex, Vitosha Blvd. - Don Juan de Marco (14.30, 16.30, 18.30, 20.30)
Globus - Bad Boys (10.30, 14.30, 19.30), Funny Bones (Oliver Platt, Lee Evans, Richard Griffits - 17)
Vitosha, Patriarch Evtimii Blvd. - cinema closed
Levski, 30 Janko Sakazov St. - While You Were Sleeping (10.30, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21)
Drive-in cinema, at the back of NDK building - Sliver (Sharon Stone, William Baldwin - 10-12 September - 21.30), Outbreak (Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Donald Sutherland - 13-14 September - 21.30)
Dom Na Kinoto, 37 Ekzarh Josiff St. - summer vacation in August
NDK, Hall 11 - Rob Roy (14, 16.30, 19; Monday 7 p.m. and Tuesday - cinema closed) WHEATHER
Sofia 25°C
Plovdiv 28°C
Bourgas 27°C
Varna 26°C
Russe 25°C
Vidin 29°C
Petrich 29°C
Today: Mostly sunny weather will dominate throughout the country. In the afternoon hours north-western winds will pick up. Lows: 19 to 22 °C. Highs: 23 to 29 °C. In Sofia: low of 20 °C, high of 27 °C.
Tuesday: No significant change in the weather condition is forecast. Rainfalls are expected in the western regions.