Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

Minister Danail Papazov: BDZ obligations are reduced by about 80 million lev

Obligations of "Holding BDZ" for 2013 are decreased by about 80 million lev, announced the Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Danail Papazov today during a press conference to present the results for 2013. "This result was achieved without any external assistance, including loans or funds from the state," he said. For the first time in recent years, BDZ has paid over 66 million lev principal of outstanding loans, and the active dialogue with creditors was restored.

"As of August 31 BDZ Freight lagged behind compared to 2012 with 13 million tons of cargo, and today we can observe an annual result which is only 1 million tons less than the one reported in 2012" said Danail Papazov. According to him, a number of major shippers using railway were returned and we are working on attracting new ones.

"We uncovered a massive corruption scheme in the Automobile Administration and have a new organization of driving tests, to prevent future manipulation," said Minister Papazov. An electronic draw for determining the chairmen of examination boards of the driving tests was introduced. Among the new changes is filming driver applicants while solving their e-flyers.

Thus it is guaranteed that the person who has submitted documents to attend the exam is the same as the one filled the leaflet.

"We finished the modification of the OP "Transport" and we have received an approval from the European Commission" the Minister added. Thanks to this solution 122.1 million will be transferred from Priority Axis 4 (marine and waterways) to Axis 3 (intermodality) and a transfer of 20 million euros from Priority Axis 2 (road infrastructure) to priority Axis 1 (rail infrastructure). The funds were essential as the beneficiaries are projects that are in progress. Among them are the expansion of the metro in the capital and the modernization of the stations in Sofia, Burgas and Pazardjik.

Minister Danail Papazov thanked the whole team who worked on the modification and made every effort to solve the problem in time. He reported that to date the OP agreed all grants, and beneficiaries are paid over 2,181 billion lev, which represents more than 55% of the total budget. Along with this the new Operational Programme "Transport and transport infrastructure" was prepared and it has already been submitted for approval in Brussels. "We are fully prepared for the railway project Ruse - Varna, which we hope to launch within this year and Kalotina - Sofia could be our first project which to apply to through the Connecting Europe Facility.

A number of companies in the system of transport ended 2013 with good results. Among them are:

•          SE "Air Traffic": The operating result for 2013 showed a profit of just over 30.5 million lev, which is enhanced with 11 million lev, compared to the results in 2012.

•          "Sofia Airport" Ltd. ended 2013 with a record 3,504,326 passengers. For 2013 "Sofia Airport" Ltd. expected to register a profit of 13,748 million lev before taxes, which is 1,340 million lev more than planned and 3,250 million lev more than reported in 2012.

•          SE "Port Infrastructure": Accounting profit amounts to about 18 million lev. Estimated revenue of the company is more than 73 million lev, and the costs are about 55 million lev. In 2013 SE "Port Infrastructure" made investments amounting to nearly 12 million lev, which is over 2 million lev more than the investments in 2012.

•          "Port of Varna" Ltd: In 2013 nearly 11 million tons of cargo was processed, which is an absolute record for the recent years. The expected financial result for 2013 amounted to nearly 5 million lev (4,801 million lev), taking into account an increase of over 16% compared to the report for 2012 (4,135 million lev) and 92% against the Business Plan 2013 (2.5 million lev). There was a priority investment №1 - delivery of two new mobile port cranes - HMK 170 E type - worth over 9 million lev.

•          "Burgas Port" Ltd: The revenues of the port in 2013 are 20,580 million lev, which is 5.3% more than planned. Expected net profit of the company was 3,510 million lev, the planned profit for 2013 is 510 thousand Levs. It was about 588% above the target.

•          "Ruse Port" Ltd: During 2013 the "Port Complex - Ruse" Ltd terminal processed 595 tons of cargo. In comparison with 2012 the company reported a decline in the total cargo turnover which amounted to 153 thousand tons or 20.5%.

•          "Information Services" JSC: The operating result for 2013 saw a profit of 1,399 million lev in comparison to the reported loss amounting to 2,552 million lev in 2012, or an improvement of 3,951 million lev.

•          SE "Communications Construction and Rehabilitation": The expected profit for 2013 is 340 thousand levs, which exceeds the projected in the business plan by over 10% and it is the highest achieved financial result for the last eight years.

Priorities of the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications for 2014:

• Stabilization of the Bulgarian Railways
• Building a modern, balanced and integrated transport infrastructure as an important factor for the competitiveness of the Bulgarian economy
• Development of transport infrastructure through public-private partnership
• Effective management of water transport and port infrastructure development
• Ensuring conditions for sustainable development of air transport and airport infrastructure
• Improve the organization and quality of services provided by road transport
• Construction and improvement of broadband infrastructure, so as to cover the territory of Bulgaria, according to the European recommendations on the strategy "Europe 2020"
• Development of e-government by building the infrastructure for its operation - environment and tools
• Preparation and adoption of a new National Plan for Broadband Next Generation 2014 - 2020 г.
• Preparation and adoption of a new strategy for eGovernment 2014 - 2020 г.
• Preparation and adoption of new Act on eGovernment and regulations to it to facilitate the practical implementation of electronic services
• Preparation and adoption of the Law on Amendments to the Law on Postal and updating of secondary legislation
• Draft law on ratification of the acts of the XXV Congress of the Universal Postal Union
• Law on Amendments to the Law on access to public information in respect to the introduction of 2013/37/ES Directive on re-use of public sector information.