site.btaSixty-six Per Cent of All State-owned Fixed Assets Privatized - Deputy Prime Minister

Sixty-six Per Cent of All State-owned Fixed Assets Privatized - Deputy Prime Minister

Sofia, July 8 (BTA) - Sixty-six per cent of all state-owned fixed assets have been privatized to date. The industrial fixed assets are almost 100 per cent privatized, Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev said during Question Time in Parliament Friday.

Since the transition to democracy in 1989, investments to the amount of 7,000 million leva have been provided for in privatization agreements. "These investments could have been much more," Donchev said, adding that "the privatization in Bulgaria did not proceed in the best possible way".

Donchev said that there are state-owned companies and stakes that must be privatized but that there is resistance to this. There are also assets whose privatization "may not be discussed", such as key companies in the gas infrastructure, the Deputy Prime Minister said. He noted that in the negotiations with the European Commission there had been a proposal to privatize Bulgartransgaz but the response of the then Bulgarian government was negative.

Donchev said also that since the entry into force of the Privatization and Post-Privatization Control Act in 2002 to date, nearly 500 million leva were paid in as a result of post-privatization control.