Privatization

The present government’s policy during the last year can be characterized as refraining from any actual action in terms of privatization. There was not any major deal while the privatization of “Bulgartabak” holding would not be implemented soon. The strong interest by the Turkish party (Movement for Rights and Liberty) as well as by other coalition members prevents the sale of the holding. The only deal that can be finished in short term is for “Varna” power plant.

Between August 2005 and June 2006 the privatization receipts according to the Ministry of Finance data reached around EUR 109 million resulting from the deals made before. According to the Privatization Agency data, the ratio of privatized assets to the assets subject to privatization and to the total assets is 91% and 60% respectively in 1995 prices. The government intends to privatize companies in sectors of energy, transport, machinery, production and trade of special items. However, it missed hospitals, schools, land, forests, dams, infrastructure that could and should be privatized either.

The real activity in the area of privatization is the sale of minor stakes which is actually the final stage of selling already privatized companies. One should take into consideration the positive fact that part of this deals were done through the stock exchange thus favoring the transparency of the procedure and reaching the highest price. The principles of privatization: transparency, equal treatment of participants, speed and efficiency could be realized if there is political will for this.