Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

The Board of Directors of Holding BDZ EAD has a new chair person. This was announced today by the Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, Danail Papazov, during the Public Council in the railway sector. The newly chosen chair, succeeding Velik Zanchev, is Anelia Krushkova.

"A meeting of the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, the Ministry of Finance and the bondholders will be held in September. The rescheduling of the bank loans will be discussed at it", said Danail Papazov. A new rehabilitation plan for Holding BDZ will be presented to the Council of Ministers in the near future.

During the Public Council, in the area of automobile transport, Minister Danail Papazov announced that a meeting between the representatives of the automobile administrations of the two countries will be held in early September in Ankara. All issues raised by the Bulgarian carriers will be discussed during the meeting. Various initiatives related to the regulation of the activity of taxi drivers were also discussed. in the members of the Public Council supported most of the measures proposed by MTITC e.g. the files of the drivers, more in-depth psychological tests, and the introduction of patent tax. During the talks, the proposal to establish a working group to systematize the proposals and to prepare a final document, which is to be revised at the next Public Council, was discussed. Minister Danail Papazov suggested that all participants write down their proposals by the end of August, so that representatives of Traffic Police and the Ministry of Finance will be invited in order to discuss them.

The unannounced inspection of transportation of passengers by taxis and buses on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, ordered by Minister Daniel Papazov, has been completed. For the period (from 1 August to 4 August) a total of 1201 vehicles were checked, 978 of which were taxis. Seventy-nine tickets for administrative violations were issued. During the checkpoints 223 busses have been examined and up to 27 tickets issued. Four buses with foreign registration have been further inspected, and two violations have been recorded – transportation of passengers without a completed form of the names of the passengers and a technical fault.

Within the Public Council on air transport, the current proposals for changes in the legal framework in the field of air transport were discussed, such as the draft ruling amending the Regulation on fees for the use of public airports and air navigation services in the Republic of Bulgaria.

The Public Council in the area of "Information Technology and Communication" was hosted by the Deputy Minister Georgi Todorov. The establishment of three thematic working groups was approved at the meeting: "E-government", "Information Technology, Information Society and high speed internet" and "Communications". During the meeting the written materials in the field of eGovernment and Communications were reviewed and discussed. The members of the Council were made aware of the taken draft measures related to e-government in three axis of the Operational Programme "Good Governance" and its three key areas of action. At the meeting it became clear that a new law on e-government, which envisages the creation of a single system integrator, would soon be submitted for public discussion.