SOFIA, Bulgaria - After decades concentrating on Asia and Africa, Bulgaria plans to shift its arms exports to markets in the European Union and NATO, according to a new defense strategy presented July 5.
Currently, arms exports to EU and NATO countries do not exceed 10 percent of Bulgaria's annual defense sales abroad, which stand at about 250 million lev ($185 million), said the document, which was drafted jointly by the economy and defense ministries.
"Maintaining this tendency would hinder Bulgaria's integration and have a negative effect on the industry's competitiveness," it added.
The strategy has yet to be approved by the government during the next few months.
"This strategy is the first real effort on the part of any government since the fall of communism to offer a long-term development vision for the defense industry," Economy Minister Traicho Traikov said at the document's presentation July 5.
Under communism, Bulgaria's arms and munitions industry employed 115,000 people and shipped abroad some $700 million to $800 million worth of production.
But the collapse of communism, the disbanding of the Warsaw Pact defense treaty and a number of international arms sales embargoes to countries in Africa and the Arab world plunged the once booming industry into a deep crisis in the 1990s.
The majority of production facilities were privatized, but failure to attract foreign investors put them in the hands of small local buyers with limited potential for new investments.
An industry source told AFP on July 5 that Bulgaria still managed to preserve some of its markets in the Middle East, India and Algeria.
The new strategy will aim to keep these traditional arms export partners by forming joint ventures and common research and development projects.
Another major goal was to encourage the Bulgarian army to buy more local defense equipment by developing it to become fully compatible with NATO standards and also engage in collective alliance defense projects from 2018 on.
Bulgaria's defense industry currently employs some 15,000 people and makes up 0.5 percent of the general industry share in the country's gross domestic product, according to the document.
Currently, arms exports to EU and NATO countries do not exceed 10 percent of Bulgaria's annual defense sales abroad, which stand at about 250 million lev ($185 million), said the document, which was drafted jointly by the economy and defense ministries.
"Maintaining this tendency would hinder Bulgaria's integration and have a negative effect on the industry's competitiveness," it added.
The strategy has yet to be approved by the government during the next few months.
"This strategy is the first real effort on the part of any government since the fall of communism to offer a long-term development vision for the defense industry," Economy Minister Traicho Traikov said at the document's presentation July 5.
Under communism, Bulgaria's arms and munitions industry employed 115,000 people and shipped abroad some $700 million to $800 million worth of production.
But the collapse of communism, the disbanding of the Warsaw Pact defense treaty and a number of international arms sales embargoes to countries in Africa and the Arab world plunged the once booming industry into a deep crisis in the 1990s.
The majority of production facilities were privatized, but failure to attract foreign investors put them in the hands of small local buyers with limited potential for new investments.
An industry source told AFP on July 5 that Bulgaria still managed to preserve some of its markets in the Middle East, India and Algeria.
The new strategy will aim to keep these traditional arms export partners by forming joint ventures and common research and development projects.
Another major goal was to encourage the Bulgarian army to buy more local defense equipment by developing it to become fully compatible with NATO standards and also engage in collective alliance defense projects from 2018 on.
Bulgaria's defense industry currently employs some 15,000 people and makes up 0.5 percent of the general industry share in the country's gross domestic product, according to the document.
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