Source: Privatization Agency

The data about initiated privatization procedures (see Table 1) indicate that despite its late start, Bulgarian privatization is gaining momentum. More than 25% of the Bulgarian state-owned enterprises and more than 7% of the municipal ones are in the process of privatization. About 230 state owned enterprises and 431 municipaly owned were sold by the end of 1994. Privatization procedures have been instituted for about 1 500 state enterprises and about 1 800 municipal.

One of the chief goals of privatisation, along with the withdrawal of the state from the management of the economy on a microeconomic level, is for the enterprises to be restructured and, once they have acquired real owners, for their activity to be based on the principles of competition and the market.

The different privatization methods provide different ways of achieving those objectives. The capital (market) privatization favored by Bulgarian legislation is still the dominating privatization method. One of the unquestionable advantages of the capital privatisation is the speedy restructuring and adjustment of the privatized yet enterprises owing to the presence of a real owner-entrepreneur and the ensuing more efficient management system. As it is seen from the table, (see Table 2) the state owned enterprises are privatised and transfered mostly to an individual owner.

Table 2.