Bulgarian Chemical Industry on a Rise
Rousse, on the Danube, November 19 (BTA)  

Publication: BTA Daily News/Bulgarian Telegraph Agency
Date: November 19, 2007

Invest in technological improvements and compliance with the environmental standards by the Bulgarian chemical industry is expected to reach over 1 billion euro over the next five years. This emerged Monday at the start of a two-day meeting of Bulgarian and Romanian chemical industry representatives in this Danubian city.
Following a dramatic decline in the Bulgarian chemical industry in the period of transition after 1989, the Bulgarian chemical industry has been in ascent for two years now, said the Vice President of the Bulgarian Chamber of the Chemical Industry, Yoncho Pelovski. Solvay Sodi of Devnya accounts for 40 per cent of the European soda ash production. The Bulgarian petrochemical industry is processing up to 6 million tonnes of oil. The wages in the sector have improved. This allows chemical companies to attract an ever increasing number of young people. Admission at the Sofia University of Chemical Technology increased by 20 per cent this past admission campaign.
Pelovski also said that the national chemical industry expects the government to support the innovation processes and offer tax concessions like all EU countries do for companies which invest in research, in environment-friendly products and new technologies.
A speaker of the French Association of the Chemical Industry underscored the risks from the surge of the chemical industry in India and China where the applicable legislation is either absent altogether or is very liberal. He said that this may result in moving out productions from Europe to Asia and insisted that the EU should press for introduction of a world-wide system for chemical management to set in place requirements for Russia, India and China. Or else competition will be unfair, he warned. LN/