Trud daily focuses on the business lunch Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski had with representatives of the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria. According to the newspaper Premier Oresharski indirectly praised the “lean pizza” tactics in the formation of the budget, contrived by former Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov from the previous GERB government, because “the country is currently in a stable financial position, because it was plunged into the crisis after a budget surplus policy, while in the past four years it has been fiscally frugal with sustained low deficits.” The Bulgarian Prime Minister indicated further that the government’s new policies “aim to reduce the administrative burden on business, consolidate the fiscal positions, improve regulation in the sphere of investments, curb contraband and VAT evasion”. Oresharski focused on two key power generation projects - Bulgaria’s connection to the Trans-Adriatic gas pipeline which will provide the country with Azeri gas and the building of the 7^th reactor at the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant using non-Russian technology.

Sega writes that “after many years of pseudo-reforms the state administration is now in total collapse. The army of thousands of civil servants is ineffectual, budget posts are bloated, there is no transparency, no e-government, and mistakes go unpunished.” These are some of the conclusions from the new state administration reform strategy up to 2020, opened to discussion yesterday, the newspaper adds. One of the assertions that evokes the greatest concern is the fact that the number of administrative structures in the country has doubled over the past 17 years. Whereas in 1996, there were 55 administrations, last year they numbered 114 at a central level. Evidently, the digital age has done nothing to reduce the number of civil servants or to save money, Sega comments.

Bulgarian specialists and technicians in the high-tech sector are among the most sought-after experts in Europe, indicates a Eurostat survey which calculates the percentage of people employed in the sector in Europe, Novinar writes. The data indicate that Bulgarian experts are employed considerably more often than their colleagues from Great Britain or Luxemburg and are second only to Lithuania and Romania. Moreover Bulgaria is top of the list in the number of ladies working in the sphere of science and technologies. The Eurostat survey shows that over 73 million people were employed in this sector in the EU in 2012.

GERB party leader Boyko Borissov and ex-President Georgi Parvanov have stated they will approach the prosecutor’s office regarding the newspaper publication alleging that the two had had a secret meeting at Borissov’s home in Bankya, Sega writes and adds that the allegations were made by Galleria weekly which cites audio recordings from the meeting, attended also by former InteriorMinister Roumen Petkov. However the paper has not made public the secret recordings it says it has. This outrageous allegation implies that the three were negotiating GERB’s support for the project of the former president ABV which has caused a split in the socialist party.

Bulgaria to manufacture Mercedes cables in Pleven, reads a headline in Standart. Cables for Mercedes, Cadillac and Opel will be manufactured in the town of Pleven. A modern factory, on an area of 5,000 sq. m. will be built in the town by Electrocable Bulgaria, a subsidiary of Nexans Autoelectric Group.Electrocable Bulgaria is planning to invest millions of euros in the new facility. At full capacity it will employ 600 in production, administration, logistics and quality and engineering control.

All newspapers write about Grigor Dimitrov’s qualification to the Australian Open third round as well as the results of the BTA 41^st annual poll for Balkan athlete of the year – for the third time Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic was named best Balkan athlete. World discus champion Sandra Perkovic of Croatia is second. BTA Director General Maxim Minchev awarded the cup for the third place to world and European Greco-roman style wrestler Ivo Angelov, Trud writes.

English version: Milena Daynova