Bulgaria's Finance Minister Completes US Tour

Bulgarian Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, delivers his lecture before Harvard University students and professors. Photo by finmin.bg

Bulgaria's Finance Minister Simeon Djankov has completed his visit to the United States where he had numerous meetings with nationals, two lectures at prestigious institutions, he presented two economic ideas and a change in the approach to Bulgarian expats.

The minister's trip began on February 27 in Boston and ended March 6 in New York. It also included the cities Washington, D.C., and Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, in Florida.

Djankov held lectures at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and at The Heritage Foundation. There, he presented his initiative for a "Financial Stability Pact", a set of proposed amendments to the Bulgarian Constitution, designed to guarantee strict conservative fiscal policies.

The Financial Minister presented some of the government's economic measures which have contributed to the country's better ranking in the annual "Economic Freedom Index" of The Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal. Bulgaria is now 60th in the world, an improvement by 15 spots compared to last year, and ahead of a number of Western European countries.

Djankov, who took over the responsibilities of the former Diaspora Minister, presented a new conception of the Bulgarian expats. He said that the reform in the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry will include restructuring of the Bulgarian Embassies abroad.

In his words, consulates in places where there is little need for their services will be closed, while others that are necessary will be open.

The minister also announced that a web portal will be launched. Its idea would be to allow electronic voting on elections. Djankov also presented the idea for an ombudsman, who would solve problems and disputes of Bulgarian expats.

One of the last meetings of the finance minister was with Bulgaria-born avant-guard artist Christo Yavashev aka Christo, who said he will donate several of his works to the Bulgarian national museum complex in Sofia, nicknamed "The Bulgarian Louvre".

The artist has agreed to lend a hand to the ambitious project and even said he considered visiting his homeland for the first time in decades, after repeatedly declaring he does not want to have anything to do with it.

Bulgaria's Culture Minister Vezhdi Rashidov has announced that one of the new museum complex halls will be named after Christo.

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