Bulgaria Moves to Boost Own Military Industrial Complex

Economy Minister Traikov (left) and Svetoslav Spasov, political advisor of PM Borisov, during the presentation of the Interdepartmental Council on Thursday. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria’s government has set up an “Interdepartmental Council on the Issues of the Military Industrial Complex and the Mobilization Readiness.“

The Interdepartmental Council on the Military Industrial Complex was presented Thursday by its two Co-Chairs, Defense Minister Anyu Angelov and Economy Minister Traicho Traikov, who also showed off its brand-new website.

The Council is going to keep a register of the Bulgarian firms holding licenses for the export, import, and transfer of arms and dual-use goods.

“The Bulgarian Defense Ministry and Army are a negligible client as they purchase only 5% of the produce of the Bulgarian military industrial complex every year,” state Defense Minister Angelov.

He and Economy Minister Traikov said that Bulgaria’s annual arms exports amounted to BGN 140 M, while before 1989 it reached USD 1-1.5 B.

Another comparison shows that 150 000 people worked at Bulgaria’s military plants before 1989 while only about 15 000 do so today.

Bulgaria invests 1000 times less money than France and 150 times less than the Czech Republic in research and development activities in the military industry, or a total of BGN 2.5 M, which go to the Defense Institute of the Defense Ministry.

This is why the Interdepartmental Council considers collecting a fee from the Bulgarian arms producers in order to fund research and development.

Economy Minister Traikov explained that within NATO Bulgaria has very intensive contacts with companies from the US military industrial complex which can be developed.

Defense Minister Angelov has made a commitment to craft a war-time mobilization and budget plan as part of the work of the Interdepartmental Committee.