- Title: BULGARIA: BULGARIA'S ARMS INDUSTRY IS UP FOR SALE
- Date: 24th June 1998
- Summary: PLOVDIV, BULGARIA (RECENT) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV 'HEMUS 98' ARMS EXHIBITION, WEAPONS ON DISPLAY AND PEOPLE LOOKING AT PRODUCTS 0.03 2. SV PAVEL GRACHEV, FORMER RUSSIAN MINISTER OF DEFENCE, WITH ADVISERS, VISITING EXHIBITION (2 SHOTS) 0.10 3. SV VARIOUS OF WEAPONS ON DISPLAY (9 SHOTS) 0.57 4. SV BULGARIAN DEFENCE MINISTER GEORGI ANANIEV SAYING," MY INFORMATION IS OUR FIRMS ARE IN GOOD CONDITION BUT THEIR FUTURE IS IN PRIVATISATION OR COOPERATION WITH OTHER PARTNERS IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO SELL TO THIRD COUNTRIES." (BULGARIAN) 1.33 5. SV/CU VARIOUS OF RACAL RADIO STAND AT EXHIBITION/WEAPONS (9 SHOTS) 2.03 6. SCU RACAL SENIOR MARKETING MANAGER JOHN WHITEHOUSE SAYING, "WE HAVE DIFFERENT STANDARDS WHICH BULGARIA IS ACTUAL ADOPTING, BULGARIA HAS ADOPTED A VERY PRO-NATO APPROACH BUT IT IS LARGELY A MATTER OF FUNDING." (ENGLISH) 2.18 7. CU MORE OF WEAPONS ON DISPLAY (3 SHOTS) 2.33 KAZANLAK, BULGARIA (RECENT) (RTV ACCESS ALL) 8. SLV GATE TO ARSENAL ARMS PRODUCING FACTORY, WORKERS GOING IN AND OUT 2.36 9. SV/CU VARIOUS OF FACTORY AND PRODUCTION LINE MAKING 'KALASHNIKOV' ASSAULT RIFLES AND BULLETS (15 SHOTS) 3.45 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 9th July 1998 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: PLOVDIV, BULGARIA
- City:
- Country: Bulgaria
- Reuters ID: LVA4PRTLNTIJ0VKFQUQ6Z33DZVO6
- Story Text: Bulgaria's vast and secretive arms industry is up for sale.
Pressed by the cost of reform and billion-dollar foreign debt payments due each year, the government last year lifted restrictions on selling off 22 military plants.
It decided to retain a 34 percent share in each of five plants which form the core of the weapons industry.
Some 100 factories in the Balkan state of 8.5 million produce armoured personnel carriers, machineguns, anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons, mortar launchers, ammunition and sophisticated communications systems.
Their privatisation raises more questions than answers.
Huge unused output capacity, shrinking markets and a complicated mix of civilian and military production plague the arms plants.Restructuring threatens to leave whole towns and villages without a livelihood.
"The plants are in good condition but their future is in privatisation or cooperation with other partners," said Defence Minister Georgi Ananiev.
The government has opened a privatisation consultant tender for a pool of five military plants it hopes to sell this year -- Arsenal, armoured personnel carrier manufacturer Beta, equipment repair plant Trema, mortar launcher maker Pima and the Agrotehnika repair plant.
The Kasanluk-based plant, hidden in the Balkan mountains, produces dozens of models of Kalashnikovs, pistols, grenade launchers and anti-aircraft guns.
Both Arsenal and Vazov, which also produce NATO-standard versions of some of their products, have had to shed two thirds of their workforce because of post-Cold War defence spending cuts.
The Bulgarian army, which in the pre-1989 era bought up to five percent of the arms industry's output, has drastically curbed purchases since 1990.Bulgaria's pro-NATO approach called for serious cuts in troop numbers.
"Bulgarian systems are compatible.In the past we both developed the same things but we were from different schools, which did the same things," said John Whitehouse, senior marketing manager with the British firm Racal Electronics.
Racal is working with Samel-90, a Bulgarian communications equipment company, to produce a complex battlefield radio system it hopes to sell to third countries.
Bulgarian weapons have figured prominently in several international incidents in recent months.
A political storm rocked Britain in May after Sandline, a company headed by a former Scots Guards officer with contacts in the Foreign Office, arranged the transfer of Bulgarian-made weapons to Sierra Leone, breaching a United Nations embargo.
The arms were allegedly to assist the overthrow of the military junta in the West African nation and the return of democratically elected President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.
Arms exports rose last year by 30 percent after a 20 percent rise in 1996, the Defence Ministry says.Exact figures were not available.
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