Novinite, Bulgaria
June 11, 2003

A redesigned early warning report on Bulgaria’s political, economic and social trends compiled by the United Nations Development Program and the US Agency for International Development was presented Wednesday at a roundtable in Sofia. The monthly overview “Bulgaria: Beyond the Facts” continues the tradition of early warning monitoring started by the two organisations in 1997 but now targets wider audiences including politicians, business people, NGOs, academics and media.

As the report is authored by leading Bulgarian journalist and international observers, the roundtable that kick-started the publication attracted high-profile turnout.

One of the hottest issues of Bulgaria’s international policy – the Iraqi debt – depends entirely on the pace of the reconstruction in the crisis region, the country’s Deputy Foreign Minister Petko Draganov said at the roundtable. Continuing the foreign policy theme, one of the authors of the report prominent journalist Veleri Tsenkov said that the conflict in Iraq is probably the only war Bulgaria has ever won as a part of a coalition.

Commenting on economic risks also covered by the report, Maxim Behar, chair of the Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum, stressed that the hazards for business in Bulgaria were not bigger than these in Greece, Spain or Portugal. However, Bulgarian economic trends need more professional analysis to make businessmen realize that, he pointed out.