Bulgaria Deputy PM Djankov Deems INSEAD Professor 'Decent Man' - Report

Finace Minister Djankov is reported to have liked INSEAD Professor Mihov after their first meeting in person. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria’s acting Finance Minister Simeon Djankov and INSEAD Professor Ilian Mihov have met “in secret.”

Their meeting has been reported by the Trud Daily, which says that the two men met on Saturday “in a secret and secluded place, away from the media.”

According to PM Boyko Borisov, Bulgaria’s Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Simeon Djankov, was supposed soon to get help from INSEAD Professor Ilian Mihov, who was supposed to join the cabinet as third Deputy Prime Minister with responsibilities on EU funds absorption and Eurozone application.

However, on Friday Mihov himself declared that he “froze” his nomination, and on Saturday Borisov said that he did not need to appoint him for the time being.

According to the Trud Daily, the two top economists – who did not know one another previously – reached an understanding to keep constantly in touch over phone and email. Djankov is said to think that Mihov is a “very virtuous and decent man,” the paper writes citing unnamed people close to the Deputy PM.

“Everything went great. We talk for an hour about how we are going to work together in the future. This was my first meeting with the Finance Minister, before that we only knew each other from telephone conversations,” INSEAD Professor Mihov told the Trud Daily before flying off from Sofia Saturday night.

The Trud Daily reminds the words of Ilian Mihov that he had decided to withdraw his nomination for the time being because of political speculations and attacks over his ideas for a “more flexible currency peg”; it points out that the criticism largely came from former Prime Minister Ivan Kostov who is supposed to be an ally of Boyko Borisov.

Mihov has said he could join the government once Bulgaria gets admitted to the ERM 2, the Eurozone waiting room.