07 novembre 2007
PALFINGER TO INVEST ABOUT 30 MILLION EURO IN A FACTORY IN BULGARIA
Until the end of 2008 Austrian machine-building company Palfinger was expected to complete its second large investment project in Bulgaria, managing director of Palfinger Bulgaria Goran Starchevich announced.
Construction of the new cylinder factory near the Yambol village of Tenevo was at an advanced stage, Dnevnik daily reported. Investments in the factory were estimated at 25-30 million euro.
The world leader in hydraulic lifting manufacturing has been operating in Bulgaria for 8 years. It started by producing part of the metal bodies of the machinery of the former Beta military factory in Cherven Bryag . Since then the company's production increased several times and the personnel grew from 150 to 500 employees, manager of Palfinger's Bulgarian division said.
Since 2002 Palfinger transferred in Bulgaria its cylinder production, the cylinders were made in the workshop of the former Sila (Power) machine-building factory near Tenevo. Starchevich commented that the opening of the new factory in 2008 would double the company's cylinder production capacity.
The high quality of the Bulgarian products stimulated managers to continue investing. In 2006 a new welding workshop was opened in Cherven bryag, 5 million euro being invested in it. Palfinger's ambitious social programme includes building a modern residential complex for the employee's families.
For the last 2 years incomes of the two Palfinger factories in Bulgaria increased by 30 per cent. Sales in 2006 amounted to 55 million euro while in 2007 they were expected to reach 64-65 million euro, manager of Palfinger Bulgaria said. In 2006 Palfinger reached a 585 million euro income and expectations for 2007 were to reach 760 million euro. The target for 2013 was for sales in excess of 1 billion euro.
Palfinger specialises in hydraulic lifting, loading and handling systems manufacturing. Its machinery is widely used in the construction industry, the timber industry, in construction and installation of electrical equipment, etc. Demand of Palfinger's products in Western Europe is very high and is expected to continue to increase. 30 per cent of the production is sold in Spain. Other big markets are those of Germany, France, Canada, etc.
NOW THAT STRIKE IS OVER, BULGARIAN SCHOOLS PLAN TO MAKE UP FOR MISSED CLASSES
After the Unions called for the end of the teachers' strike on Friday November 2, Bulgarian teachers would have to choose by themselves which part of the classes to skip in order to make up for those they missed due to the teachers' strike, Standart daily reported.
Head of the Sofia educational inspectorate Vanya Kastreva said the easier classes would be merged. The non-obligatory writers in the literature programme would not be studied due to the lack of time, teachers commented. The ministry of education and culture would decide which literary works to be removed from the programme, Bulgarian language and literature expert Stanislav Georgiev said.
At the same time teachers will work extra hours to help students catch up on their classes, an initiative teachers from St Kliment Ohridski high school in Varna started.
Last-year secondary school students and last-year high school students will be the ones with the most extra work to do. They have to sit high school and university admission exams and therefore need to go through their classes more quickly.
The length of classes, however, would remain the same, Dnevnik daily reported. A single class would not last more than 45 minutes and there would be no extra classes daily, representatives of the regional educational inspectorates explained on November 5. According to Vanya Kastreva, when determining the class length, the students' capacity to effectively grasp the material should be taken into consideration.
From November 6 on, inspectors will start meetings at schools to draw up plans to make up for missed classes. A week later the Education ministry would sum up their conclusions and would decide how to change the study programmes, Dnevnik daily reported.
Teachers started an effective strike on September 24, demanding 100 per cent increase of salaries. An concept agreement was reached between unions and Education Ministry on October 26, but rejected by teachers on October 29. On November 2, the unions announced the end of the strike as the concept agreement had been included in the concept budget 2008, which had been taken to Parliament a few days before.
http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/now-that-strike-is-over-bulgarian-schools-plan-to-make-up-for-missed-classes/id_25966/catid_66
Carrefour to enter Bulgaria
In a recent press interview, the president of Carrefour Marinopoulos, Jérome Loubère, has indicated that the retailer plans to invest at least EUR200 million (USD27.6 million) in opening 20 hypermarkets in Bulgaria in the next five to seven years, targeting a 20% market share. The company expects to open its first Bulgarian hypermarket in the Black Sea port city of Burgas at the end of next year.
According to Mr Loubère, the hypermarkets will open either in shopping malls or as standalone units. "We see today a lot of interest for malls in Bulgaria because of the retail organisation. Bulgaria today has a lot of small shops so there is a huge interest in malls," Loubère said, adding that at least half of the planned hypermarkets will be located in malls. The company plans to open shopping malls in the country's largest cities, including the capital Sofia, the cities of Burgas, Varna, Plovdiv, Ruse and Stara Zagora, while in the smaller towns it will build separate hypermarkets.
The company expects to open its first Bulgarian hypermarket in the Black Sea port city of Burgas at the end of next year. Carrefour has also kicked off work on its first multi-purpose mall and office centre in Bulgaria which will be built in the outskirts of Sofia and will have a total built up area of over 240,000 square metres. The facility, named Carrefour Tsarigradsko Mall, will feature a three-level underground parking lot, 200 shops, restaurants and entertainment facilities. It is scheduled to become operational in the first half of 2009. Mr Loubère said that the group expects to generate between EUR20 million (USD27.7 million) to EUR50 million (USD69.4 million) in annual sales per store and added that total sales will depend on the number of stores opened in the next five to seven years. "If we have four-five stores opened it would be four-five times this number."
http://dah.kiev.ua/content/view/652/100/
BULGARIA’S WINTER RESORT ATTRACTIONS TO UNDERGO CONSUMER PROTECTION INSPECTION
Bulgaria's Consumer Protection Commission (CPC) launches an intensive inspection of restaurants, bars, hotels, entertainment places and tour operators in Bulgaria's winter resorts, CPC announced.
The inspections were launched because of the upcoming winter season and December holidays, investor.bg said.
CPC’s inspectors will check whether hotels have a star-rating and if services offered meet rating requirements. Restaurants' menu prices and the weights of meals offered will be examined.
The inspectors will looks for dual pricing where different price lists are used for Bulgarians and foreigners.
Tour operators' registration, professional insurance, registration of complaints, contracts with clients and advertisement offers will be checked.
In summer season 2007, CPC issued 465 fines for violations after 1711 checks of tourist attractions at the coastal resorts, investor.bg said. CPC closed 52 tourist attractions.
http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/bulgarias-winter-resort-attractions-to-undergo-consumer-protection-inspection/id_25969/catid_66
New chairperson of Svishtov’s Municipal Council is from CEDB
| 7 November 2007 | 16:52 | FOCUS News Agency |
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Svishtov. The newly elected chairperson of the Municipal Council in the town of Svishtov is from Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (CEDB), Radio FOCUS-Veliko Tarnovo informed. Ivan Haralambiev got 16 votes at the first round of the ballot. The other candidate Assoc. Prof. Stoyan Prodanov from coalition “For Svishtov” got 13 votes. |
Boyko Borisov: Ahmed Dogan is the only politician, who tells the truth
| 6 November 2007 | 08:44 | FOCUS News Agency |
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Sofia. There is no politician in Bulgaria other than Ahmed Dogan, because this man always tells the truth. During the press conference after the elections he was the only one to evaluate the change, which has happened to Bulgaria, the leader of the political party Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria /CEDB/ and a Mayor of Sofia Boyko Borisov said in an interview for BTV. |
NEW HOTELS AND BIATHLON MARK BULGARIA’S CHEPELARE RESORT SEASON OPENING
Bulgaria's Chepelare winter resort in the Rhodopi Mountain will open the new winter season with four new hotels with 300 beds and a vacation village of 10 houses.
Subi Madankov, head of the hotel and restaurant owners union in Smolyan, said that with the new lodgings, Chepelare would be able to host 1600 tourists at a time.
In winter season 2007/2008, in Chepelare two centres for biathlon with ski runs of one, two and three km, would be opened, Focus news agency reported.
One of the centres was in the town, while the other was on the Mechi Chal peak.
The snowboard park in the town will be made longer.
According to Madankov, no ‘drastic’ raise in the price of the ski lift tickets was to be expected. Currently, the lift and the facilities were being examined.
Some 90 per cent of the ski runs were ready, Madankov said. With the new tracks, Chepelare had 22 km of alpine ski runs and 20 km of ski and biathlon tracks.
http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/new-hotels-and-biathlon-mark-bulgarias-chepelare-resort-season-opening/id_25984/catid_67
FROM THE EDITOR: Changes
If the municipal elections are taken as a massively expensive and elaborate public opinion poll, a number of conclusions may be extrapolated.
First, voter turnout remained a low, a trend established some years ago, and confirmed in the 2003 municipal elections, 2005 parliamentary elections, 2005 special mayoral elections, 2006 presidential elections and Bulgaria’s European Parliament elections earlier this year. This trend has been ascribed to many things, of which the factors that stand out are fatigue with the politics of transition, disillusionment with the cavalier attitude that Bulgaria’s political elite displays towards ordinary people, and the public perception that whoever is nominally in power, the country is controlled from behind the scenes by powerful business interests.
Second, and linked to the above, it is notable that none of the parties associated with the first decade or so after the fall of communism did especially well, even though the performance of Martin Zaimov in Sofia has been read as evidence that the seemingly long-spent impetus of what used to be the Union of Democratic Forces could again be revived, if only the right-wing could learn to put aside their petty personal squabbles. In 2007 Bulgaria, the parties that stabilised post-1997 Bulgaria and put it on the road to macro-economic stability and European Union membership were shown scant respect by voters.
Third, and not insignificantly, the spectre of ultra-nationalism that stalked the land in the form of Ataka, and produced an apparent upward growth curve in the 2005 parliamentary and 2006 presidential elections, appears to be fading. In only one city of any significance did Ataka reach the second round, even though it should be noted that some of its voter base may have transferred their allegiance to strongman Boiko Borissov, even though few of his messages are the same as those of Ataka – in fact, all he has in common with them is a contempt for the current governing tripartite coalition.
Further, two worrying trends persist and may even have worsened in the conduct of elections. The first is the risks associated with ethnic mobilisation. As Ataka conjured up one form of this evil, so again we have seen voters brought in by the busload in an obvious mobilisation on ethnic lines. Also disturbing were the widespread allegations of the purchasing of votes, not only a sad spectacle that people cared so little for their democratic rights that they were prepared to part with them for cash, but also that there was a candidate who saw nothing wrong in handing out money and other financial incentives to recruit support. It is to be hoped that Bulgaria, as an EU member and as a state not of the kind where international monitoring should be required to ensure a free and fair election, cracks down effectively on such abuses.
Finally, it is important to consider the meaning of the three parties that did the best. As noted above, one mobilised – as it has long since done – its electorate on ethnic and religious lines. Of the other two, one long-established and the other a recent phenomenon (at least as a formal political party), both have track records of making promises that, for one reason or another, have not been kept. In time, and now that we are one step closer to the 2009 parliamentary and European Parliament elections, their current support may be eroded by further disillusionment, and by the start of the next decade of the 21st century, a further reshaping of the political landscape may prove inevitable. All that may be extrapolated with certainty is that the medium-term future holds further changes.
http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/from-the-editor-changes/id_25892/catid_27
MP Eleonora Nikolova: Ivan Kostov split right wing
| November 2007 | 11:38 | FOCUS News Agency |
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Sofia. Ivan Kostov was the one who split the right wing, Eleonora Nikolova, independent MP, said, FOCUS News Agency informs. According to her the leader of Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) was the one who ‘ shattered the model of the right union’ and added that he was in no position of giving advice. |
PM Stanishev: Development and future of Bulgarian Marine Fleet is no priority
| 7 November 2007 | 13:16 | FOCUS News Agency |
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Varna. The development and future of the Bulgarian Marine Fleet is a priority of the government, Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev announced in Varna port upon releasing water on the Pirin ship, a journalist of Radio FOCUS – Varna reported. |