Sofia Pushes Voucher Sell-Off

SOFIA -- Trying to jump start flagging attempts to privatize the once-Communist economy, Bulgarian officials are urging citizens to join a new voucher program that will allow them to buy shares in formerly state-owned businesses.The voucher system has worked successfully for over two years in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, while Bulgaria has struggled with its privatization program. State-owned companies still account for 96 percent of the economy, and the government says two-thirds of them are losing money."We can't make it without some sort of voucher scheme, if we are to speed up privatization," Hristo Pamukchiev, a Privatization Agency official, said in a radio interview Sunday.Late last Thursday, parliament approved a project to issue low-interest loans of leva 25,000 ($454) to every adult citizen who wants to buy shares of state-owned companies.The credit, which does not have to be repaid for five years, will be extended in the form of investment vouchers, which can be exchanged for shares in about 500 state-owned enterprises. The vouchers will be registered with the government and cannot be used for any other purpose, sold or exchanged. Although voucher schemes have been successful in East Europe's most advanced market-reform countries, they are still many skeptics in Bulgaria.