28.07.2009

We have been working with Mr. Oresharski and his team over the last couple of weeks, said Minister of Finance Simeon Djankov while taking the office from his predecessor.  We are getting into the swing of the work at the Ministry with a flying start as the greatest challenge before the new government is to deal with the crisis. He pointed out that by the middle of the week he would present his team wherewith he would borrow the good practices; he also announced that the administration of the Ministry of Finance would be restructured. Simeon Djankov said that he would have three Deputies - in the first months there would be two Deputies and he himself would be responsible for the revenue administration.

Minister Djankov said that the budget for the current year would be amended while working on the 2010 budget, too. He pointed out that the amendments to the budget would be aimed at cutting the expenditures in order to achieve a balanced budget. For the time being an agreement with the International Monetary Fund would not be concluded but experts of the Fund would be invited to our country to make an analysis of their own, said the new Minister of Finance.

The \"old\" Minister left to the \"new\" one three advices sealed in three envelopes which are to be opened one after another in hard times. Plamen Oresharski was not inclined to tell what was written in them and left to the new Finance Minister to decide when to announce them.

After the end of the ceremony on the transfer of the post the former Minister of Finance Plamen Oresharski introduced Simeon Djankov to the Directors of Directorates and Agencies within the structure of the Ministry of Finance and thanked them for their efforts and for the results achieved in the past 4 years. Oresharski wished his successor to strengthen the macroeconomic and financial stability through prudent fiscal policy. Minister Djankov appraised the Ministry of Finance as one of the good ones worldwide and expressed his hope that this situation would preserve and improve with the joint work of the new and the already established team.