Bulgaria to target EU, NATO markets for arms exports

Bulgaria plans to shift its arms exports to markets in the European Union and NATO, after decades concentrating on Asia and Africa, according to a new defence strategy presented Tuesday. Currently, arms exports to EU and NATO countries do not exceed 10 percent of Bulgaria\'s annual defence sales abroad -- which stand at about 250 million leva (126 million euros, $185 million) -- said the document, which was drafted jointly by the economy and defence 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 over 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 defence industry,\" Economy Minister Traicho Traikov said at the document\'s presentation Tuesday. Under communism, Bulgaria\'s arms and munitions industry employed 115,000 people and shipped abroad some 700 to 800 million dollars\' worth of production. But the collapse of communism, the disbanding of the Warsaw Pact defence 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 privatised 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 Tuesday 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 defence equipment by developing it to become fully compatible with NATO standards and also engage in collective alliance defence projects from 2018 on. Bulgaria\'s defence 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.