October 22 (SeeNews) - Following are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Thursday morning. SeeNews has not verified these reports and cannot vouch for their accuracy.
DNEVNIK
- Bulgaria's former Justice Minister Miglena Tacheva has signed disadvantageous deals worth 350 million levs for construction works at court buildings, her successor, Margarita Popova, said. The deals will be probed by the prosecution authorities.
- The European Investment Bank and acting Sofia Mayor Minko Gerdzhikov will sign on Thursday a 105 million euro loan for the extension of the capital's underground railway system. The lender and Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov will also sign a memorandum of understanding on technical assistance for infrastructure projects, the daily reported.
- Government spending for next year has been increased to 26.9 billion levs, up by 317 million levs from the initial target , the daily reported, quoting a revised draft of the 2010 budget bill. The increase will be allocated for the budgets of the ministries and for subsidies.
- The government will issue state guarantees for loans worth over 286 million euro for infrastructure and education next year, the government said.
- The government will aim to limit the 2009 end-year unemployment rate to 10%, Deputy Labour Minister Krasimir Popov said. The country's jobless rate was 8.03% at the end of September.
- Bulgaria should put on stream 150 megawatts (MW) of solar parks a year in order to meet a EU requirement to generate 16% of its annual electricity output from renewables by 2020, Rumen Hristov, manager of local company SunService, said. SunService is a member of the newly set up association of photovoltaic panel producers. The country now has 3.0 MW of installed solar power facilities.
PARI
- Bulgarian IT company Kontrax will launch officially its business operations in neighbouring Macedonia early next year as part of its regional expansion plans, the company's managing director, Yordan Yordanov, said.
- Bulgaria will greenlight 500 quarry concession procedures that have stalled since 2001, Regional Development Minister Rosen Plevneliev said.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)