Search Results for: Bulgarian

BY KEITH NUTHALL in Paris, ALAN OSBORN in London, MARK ROWE in Singapore, ED PETERS and DON GASPER in Hong Kong, RICHARD HURST in Johannesburg, MONICA DOBIE and PHILIP FINE in Montreal, MATTHEW BRACE in Brisbane and ALEX SMAILES in Port of Spain.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is planning to lend international private equity group Advent International Euro 10 million, to help it, and an associated consortium, buy 65 per cent of the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC), which is being privatised.…

BY MARK ROWE
CUSTOMS and Excise officers in Bristol have made the biggest ever seizure of contraband cigarettes in Britain’s West Country region. More than 10 million cigarettes with an estimated duty value of Pounds 1.75 million were found in a crane imported at the city’s Royal Portbury Dock on board a Bulgarian timber ship.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank has followed up an agreement to integrate Balkans countries’ electrical systems with that of the European Union by announcing a Euro 130 million loan for developing the region’s electricity networks.

Euro 70 million is being lent to the Yugoslav republics of Serbia and Montenegro, (Euro 59 and 11 million respectively).…

Keith Nuthall
THE BULGARIAN government is to stem a boom in imports of white tinplate crown corks; Sofia is imposing temporary safeguard duties to protect Bulgaria’s production of this key drinks packaging product, used to seal glass bottles. It told the World Trade Organisation that imports in 1999 increased by 673 per cent compared to 1998, and by 874 per cent in 2000, which “contributed significantly to domestic products’ price decline and to reduced profitability.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE UNITED Nations has highlighted how some member countries have been using their money laundering laws to criminalise corruption, while employing bribery or corruption laws to outlaw money laundering. A report by the UN Secretary General’s department on how the organisation’s 1996 declaration against Corruption and Bribery in International Commercial Transactions has lead to national laws being tightened regarding these crimes lists a number of case studies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
INTERNATIONAL financial assistance is required in the eastern European shipbuilding and repair industries, if they are to withstand increased competition following the planned entry of their countries to the European Union, a report ordered by the European Commission has concluded.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE CITIZENS of eastern European countries which have signed association agreements with Brussels, paving the way for their accession to the European Union, cannot be refused the right to live in a Member State, if they can become successfully self-employed, the European Court of Justice has ruled.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development has developed what appears to be the rather unlikely plan to lend US$25 million to a South Korean-owned shipbuilding firm, in a bid to increase its industrial capacity. Although the proposed loan would actually be spent on boosting Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering’s operations in Mangalia, a Black Sea coast town in Romania, near the Bulgarian border, the bank is said to be aware of the political sensitivities.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development has drawn up plans to lend US $5 million to Bulgarian gold and copper mine Navan Chelopech A.D., to improve productivity and efficiency, “by bringing the mine up to international operating and environmental standards.”…