The establishment of organizations for self support of the private sector is based on the natural progress of private sector development, aiming to coordinate interests, settle contradictions, allocate markets and determine prices. One of the important factors for the emergence of such institutions is the formation of the social partnership system, whose statute presupposes the existence of the so-called empoyers' organizations. Certain international organizations as well as the bilateral technical aid substantially assisted the constitution and development of these institutions.

The traditions of the institutions that existed under socialism is a specific factor for the formation of the Bulgarian business organizations. For instance, The Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Bulgarian Chamber of Economy as followers of such structures that existed before the reforms began, studied new models of internal organization, objectives, membership, priorities and predominantly business purpose.

In accordance with the transition legislation they preserved some of their previous functions that ensured significant and stable membership. On the other hand the experience, funds and infrastructure they inherited was undoubtedly comparative advantage for them.

The role of these organizations in providing consultancy services for private firms, the publication of macroeconomic literature aiming at assisting the registration and functioning of companies, the creation of information networks and the establishment of contacts among the firms are an important contribution of the business organizations in its development. Most of the organizations attracted free foreign technical assistance to support the private sector which is still another significant contribution.

Their social partnership participation enabled them to influence the governments economic policy. Most of the business organizations, however, consist of both private and state sector ones. Even those that emerged with the purpose to support the private sector later included state enterprises as well.

The lack of modern legal regulation of the statute of these organizations (they are all registered according to the Person and Family Law) hinders their activities. The enforcement of appropriate law for the non-government organizations is an important precondition for the development of the non-profit organization including the business ones.

The universal character of their structure and functions is a common feature. They include firms of all branches and are not have regional restrictions. Their universal character, however, has recently began to erode affected by the spontaneous emergence of chambers and other organizations, combining the producers of a certain branch. These institutions create better conditions to mutually assist and coordinate interests, to face unfair competition and create regulations for the relationship among competitors. Under the present conditions of lack of efficient government control and competition protection, the branch organizations could take the role of such a corrective, created by the economic practice.

Bulgarian Chamber of Economy (BCE)

It was established in 1980 as a voluntary non-profit union to include state, municipal and cooperative firms and organizations, as well as banks, universities, etc. BCE is governed by General Assembly, that gathers once in three years. In the period between two general assemblies BCE is managed by Administrative Council of 42 persons. It gathers twice a year. The Chamber Board of Managers is of 6 persons, the Control Council - of 5.

2410 state and municipal firms and institutions were its members in 1989 which made 94% of the total Bulgarian industrial infrastructure. At present the Chamber has 50 members.

From September 1991, BCE initiated the creation of branch unions to combine state and private enterprises based on their branch activities. The branch unions have the following major objectives:

- to develop and support of the member firms in their economic activities;

- to protect the members' rights and interests against government and state institutions;

- to provide assistance and support in the sphere of management, professional ethics and education of employees;

- to expand the inter-branch relations and contacts in order to support the economic activities of the member-firms from the respective branch. 34 branch unions have been created until February 1992.

The branch unions cover different spheres of industry and territorial regions. There exist 46 branch unions that combine the interests of business transactors in different spheres. The major priorities can be summarized as follows: natural spring water bottling, ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, food industry, agricultural machine building, automobile and machine building industry, etc.

There are 28 regional unions concentrated in the major Bulgarian industrial centres. Generally, they service the branch unions and the Chamber's business information network. The information network has been created with the purpose to expand the commercial relationship between the Bulgarian and foreign structures. The network provides offers for sale of commodities, as well as information about fairs and exhibitions. It also has consultancy offices that can be contacted by anyone for a certain fee. The first stock exchange also belongs to the Chamber assets.

Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI)

BCCI is an autonomous, public, self-funding organization of firms from different spheres of business and types of ownership. The membership is on a voluntary bases but is mandatory for those firms that carry out foreign trade activities. It has within its structure a Court of Arbitration which is the only one for this country. The Chamber has its regional structure which services and facilitates to a great extent the local business. The membership itself provides a number of privileges for the member organizations. The members amount to about 50000 throughout the country, 20000 being private business representatives.

The Chamber also provides for its members preferential terms and prices of the services it offers. The Chamber is internationally recognized. Its membership in similar international organizations contributes to its members' prestige and facilitates the commercial and industrial cooperation.

Unit of Private Economic Enterprise (UPEE)

This is an organization representative of the small business in Bulgaria while G-13 or The Confederation of the Industrialists represent the large private business.

UPEE was founded on December 22, 1989 as a independent, non-government organization with 40 regional unions throughout the country and with more than 7000 members. The Union activities are being funded by membership fees and donations, as well as by the funds of companies created with the participation of UPEE (for instance, 168 Hours Press Group, First Private Bank, Primex 9000 Ltd Foreign Trade Centre, Bulgaria Insurance and Reinsurance Company). UPEE established most of its structures at the very beginning of the market economy transition when the private business was still unstable and the state monopoly prevailed. The UPEE membership provides preferential terms and conditions for advertisement in 168 Hours, informational services provided by the Euroinfocentre, training courses fees, etc.

UPEE represents the private business in the Trilateral Committee. This position makes UPPE widely popular among business circles and increases its reputation among entrepreneur circles. In 1992 UPEE team proposed a draft for the Small Enterprises Law.

Organization of the Free Entrepreneurs-Alternative 2000

The organization was founded in April 1991 in Sofia with 1100 small private firms and cooperative as members. State or mixed ownership firms do not tale part in the association's activities. It has not been elected to represent the private business in the trilateral committee: Tarde Unions, Employers and Government.

The organization's objective is to exert influence among the private business structures. The lack of perfect marketing structure is one of the main shortcomings of the organization. Its members intend to open business centres for private business informational services. The organizations maintains serious relations with the mass media, including Express Newspaper, Express radio, etc.

Union of the Private Producers in Bulgaria "Vazrajdane"

The Union of the Private Producers in Bulgaria "Vazrajdane" was established on December 20, 1989 in Sofia. The Union originated with the idea to combine the private individual producers but later the idea evolved and at present the Union combines both individual and private sector producers. In 1992 the union had 16000 members, currently they are about 15000.

The "Vazrajdane" Union has about 40 regional representative offices. The Unions is being funded by membership fees, subsidies, donations and other economic activity revenues. The economic activities of the union is carried out by the company with the same appellation, whose main activity includes consultancy, administrative and financial services. It maintains active contacts with UPEE.

The "Vazrajdane" Union is a regular member of the Bulgarian Chamber of Economy and The Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The Union members enjoy free services.

The major objectives of the Union are to:

- give recommendations to improve Bulgarian legislation, expressing private businessmen's opinion;

- assist union members in getting bank credits;

- create a lobby to protect private businessmen's interests on both state and municipal level.

Union of the Private Farmers

The Union was established on May 12, 1992 as voluntary, non-profit, self-funding organization. At the beginning the Union had 72 members, currently they are 5000.

The Union has its regional structure developed. The regional offices are independent juridical persons but are registered according to the Labour Code and thus are not allowed to carry out economic activities.

One of the major problems the union faces is the age of most of its members that remains too high and is an indicator that still only a small number of young people are interested in agriculture.

The main objective of the union is to assist the private farmers in the following areas:

- to find land;

- to apply scientific achievements;

- information about legislative changes;

- to improve the business environment.

Union of the Crafts Cooperatives

The Union was established on february 7, 1989. About 200 cooperatives are members of the Union. The main objective of the Union is to assist its members in affecting the legislative and government policy to meet the cooperatives' interests. The Union has regional offices in most of the municipalities in the country. The basic criterion to develop the regional structure is to carry out independent policy in the production and commercial sphere of the respective municipality.

In 1991 the Cooperative Bank was created as a result of the union's efforts.

Central Cooperative Union (CCU)

CCU is one of those organizations that existed under the centrally planned economy. Significant amendments to the union's statute were made in 1990. The union members are organized in about 900 cooperatives, combined in 29 regional unions. The Unions id being funded mainly by own funds or bank credits. 1991 faced boom of services offered by the union. About 450 credit-saving branches were created within the consumer cooperations. The Central Cooperative Bank was founded in March 1991, CCU being one of its founders. Its initial capital amounts to BGL 270 million and the bank makes efforts to open 29 regional branches.

Branch Organizations of the Private Businessmen

Apart from the multi-branch organizations of the economic transactors in Bulgaria many branch chambers, associations and partnerships were created and continue to be created. These are :

- Association of the Bread Bakers in Bulgaria

- Association of the Traders

- Association of the Wine Producers and Traders

- Union of the Wool and Textile Industry, created in 1991 in Sevlievo

- Union of the Farmer Cooperatives

The creation of such organizations facilitates the development of the private sector on the principle of se;f-assistance.

Confederation of the Industrialists "G-13"

The private sector formation a d its dual character most naturally led to the formation of a specific private business organization called G-13, that became popular in Bulgaria and abroad as an organization of the Bulgarian large private business. The G-13 phenomenon has its origins in the processes of private sector concentration and diversification, in the symptoms of monopolization of the key economic branches and the tightening of the private sector control on them.

A decision was made on september 18, 1993 in Plovdiv to establish G-13. There is an evidence existing in March 1995 that proves the confederation's complete collapse. Both phenomena - the creation and collapse of such specific organization are an important attribute of the economic system and an significant argument for the economic policy.

Objectives

The confederation was created as voluntary, independent, non-political and self-managing, non-profit organization with the objectives to:

- support and encourage the Bulgarian private industrial capital development and to provide equal opportunities for its participation in the privatization processes;

- assist fair competition and prevent monopoly in the newly developing economic relations.

Management structure

The member-firms in the Confederation of the Industrialists are predominantly holding companies in accordance with Art. 277 of the Commercial Code. This legal framework allows the participation in other companies or management, as well as own production and commercial activities. Another advantage of the holding company structure is the high degree of diversification of economic purpose and the opportunity to control a wide circle of production activities-acquisition, management, assessment, and sale of shares in Bulgarian and foreign companies; acquisition, management, and sale of bonds; acquisition, assessment, and sale of patents; grant licenses for the use of patents of companies in which the holding company takes part, fund companies in which the holding company takes part.

The confederation's greatest advantage, perhaps, is that according to the Bulgarian Accounting Law, the holding companies are not required to submit their annual financial reports and balance sheets. The official information about their financial and economic situation is provided by their respective firms. It is practically impossible to cover all firms within the holding companies structure which hinders the reliable data collection.

Findings

The institutionalization of large business interests in the so-called Confederation of the industrialists aimed to synchronize activities considering the market influence of every single member of the confederation. It seems as if the market allocation was completes faster tan expected and the quick retreat of some of its founders is a signal for this similar to the principle that opposites attract. That is why at present the question whether the large and small businesses could cooperate in the sphere of private initiative still remains a rhetoric question.

The large business in Bulgaria is distinguished by its branch diversification. This process has to do with the companies' efforts to gain position at the market which distinguishes them from their competitors and at the same time makes them unique as far as their market presence is concerned. Most of the groupings's interests collide in the key economic branches.

Their different market influence makes them to a great extent equal and this at the same time presupposes serious conflicts, concerning their similar market interests. Usually this collision shows certain common features, characteristic of the Bulgarian large business:

(1) The analysis done shows that 70% of the media is owned by the large private business. The large business exerts strong influence on the public opinion, both inside and outside the country through a powerful media propaganda. There is an obvious interest of the industrialists in sports and football in particular.

(2) One of the criteria for the formation of the Confederation of the Industrialists is their connection to a private financial institution, which is a symbol of reliable partnership in the world of international business. In most of the cases such connection has to do with the decapitalization processes in a similar country.

(3) The large private individuals prefer the holding company structure of management because it presupposes flexibility as far as the legal framework is concerned and allows low degree of transparency of the financial situation of every single member of the holding company.

(4) The large business expands very fast in a comparatively short period. This is due to the favourable conditions that were created at the beginning of the economic reform and the lose control on such formations. This can be proved by the increased popularity of these groupings in the last two years. Up to the present moment they have been developing their structure and defining their image using the time to accumulate capital. Their financial institutions were established , enterprises were purchased in order to hide the secret decapitalization of state enterprises. The expansion of these structures is connected with the development of spheres of influence in the following directions: money, communication and power. They gained enough power to compete among themselves in these directions and it was not until then that the state proved too weak to counteract them. In addition, the exclusive independence characteristic of the groupings has now reached the prerogatives of the state.

(5) Guesses can only be made about the political origin of the large private business as well as about their current political engagement. It can only be said with certainty that they have connections with foreign persons and banks, a fact which even they do not try to hide. Their foreign connections (Russian, American and European) are the sources of their initial capital with which they started. Similar to the electricity the money currents move on the least resistance principle. The money accumulation on one place presupposes less resistance and lower criteria for their origin.

(6) The unique character of the Bulgarian large business is also characterized by the efforts to decapitalize the state financial institutions and to impose their own rules of management. Guesses can only be made about the dimensions of their influence upon the state management, which is due to the extremely complex management system in their own structures.

The existence of large business inevitably poses the question of the place of its antipode - the small business. They are sharply opposed in Bulgaria. The large business intention to encourage the small and medium business in this country became very popular. As a result of the market reallocation monopoly structures were created that under the conditions of a weak market necessitate the encouragement of the smaller business structures and subjects. This is meant to ensure flexibility as far as the market influence is concerned and at the same time to avoid market disruptions.

Efforts are made at present to distinguish the place of the middle class as a balancing stratum. Its formation is considered as timely and necessary development. the dilemma it has to solve is whose interests to combine. The large business has obviously concentrated in the financial and production sphere while the small business has focused mainly on the trade sphere. The renters and new inheritors of restitution property have pretence to the middle class. Both parties (the large and small business) have reserves concerning the ability of renters to serve as tramplin for small business stratum transition to the large business class. It seems as if the reverse process does not offer preconditions for serious analysis.