24.11.2010

During the second day of his working visit to London Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Simeon Djankov met with the UK Finance Minister George Osborne. The EU countries with sound fiscal policies that are outside the Euro area should be involved more actively in the drafting of the permanent mechanism for prevention and control of any future crises, Simeon Djankov said during the meeting. This mechanism should include measures against countries with high deficits, but the application of sanctions only will worsen the situation of countries in crisis, so this mechanism must be more flexible, Djankov added. The two Ministers discussed common positions before the decisive meetings of Community Finance Ministers in Brussels in December. The topics under discussion also included the possibilities for combined and more flexible use of the Cohesion Fund, the Structural and Agricultural Funds, as well as the implementation of regional infrastructure projects while making the best use of available resources.

The government has put together initiatives to win Chinese investment and plans to focus on these efforts over the next few months, Minister Simeon Djankov said earlier today at the Bloomberg Businessweek European Leadership Forum. \"We\'ve seen growing interest from Chinese investors of coming to our region, specifically Bulgaria\", said the Minister in an interview for Bloomberg. China is among the countries that have expressed interest in investing in a new nuclear power plant. Bulgaria seeks to attract Chinese investment in infrastructure, energy and export industries to bolster its economy after the country\'s worst recession in a decade, stresses the Bulgarian Finance Minister before the established agency. He reminded Bulgaria had kept the corporate and personal income tax rates at 10 percent, the lowest in the European Union, in an effort to attract investors. While the debt crises in neighbouring Greece and Romania have cast a shadow over the region, Bulgaria also seeks to attract investors with its stable finances, Djankov added.

Bulgaria must speak more decisively in Brussels and defend its interests, Simeon Djankov said at an open lecture at the prestigious university London School of Economics and Political Science. Although we are a small economy, our voice is important and we should use this opportunity in the development of the common EU policies, Minister Djankov said. In his opinion the successful EU exit from the crisis is related to the implementation of a sound fiscal policy in all Member States and Bulgaria has proven it can pursue such a policy.

After the crisis in Ireland, Europe has no clear view as to which is the successful economic model that must be followed and that is why the EU needs a new success story and should reconsider some aspects of its common economic policy in order to be competitive with the USA and the emerging economies in the East, the Minister of Finance added.