Sopot

Over the last year, Bulgaria has earned 1.6 billion leva from the export of military products, Minister of Economy Bogdan Bogdanov announced to bTV.

The Bulgarian government has proposed to ban the sale of arms manufacturer VMZ-Sopot and arms trader Kintex on account of their major importance for national security.

Draft legislation to put the two wholly-state owned companies on the list of enterprises banned for privatisation would be submitted to parliament for approval, the cabinet decided at a weekly meeting on Wednesday.

Two of Bulgaria's major state-owned arm companies, the producer VMZ-Sopot and the exporter Kintex, are to be privatized over the next three years, according to a mid-term economic forecast of the Ministry of Finance.

The privatization plan foresees selling VMZ-Sopot, which is the biggest arm producer in Bulgaria, in 2018, and Kintex in 2019.

Two state-owned weapons companies, a manufacturer and an exporter, are to be put out for privatization over the next few years, Bulgaria's draft midterm budget forecast reads.

Bulgarian state-owned military plant VMZ Sopot has a new CEO, Ivan Getsov, according to an announcement of Dimitar Atanasov, Chair of the Podkrepa Labor Confederation at the plant.

The Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) has claimed that the arms plant VMZ Sopot is being pushed towards bankruptcy aimed at change of ownership.

Trade union representatives at the military plant believe that it will not be possible to pay the salaries and social security contributions of some 2500 military plant workers.

Bogdan Bogdanov is the new CEO of Bulgaria's state-owned military plant VMZ Sopot and Todor Dichev has been appointed Chair of the Board of Directors of the company.

The top-level reshuffle was confirmed by Economy Minister Bozhidar Lukarski on Friday.

The CEO of Bulgaria's state-owned military plant VMZ Sopot, Ivan Stoenchev, has resigned.

Stoenchev left the General Assembly of VMZ Sopot of his own accord and his resignation was accepted by the members of the panel, according to sources close to the matter, as cited by the Focus news agency.

Trade union representatives have vowed that the production process at the explosion-stricken Iganovo site of Bulgarian military plant VMZ Sopot will start in a week's time.

Tuesday's explosion at the VMZ Sopot military plant's warehouse near the village of Iganovo was deliberate, Economy Ministry officials have suggested.