The Bulgarian arms industry produced more ammunition in 2023 than the rest of Europe. This production is necessary both for our Euro-Atlantic partners and for Ukraine. This was announced by the Minister of Economy and Industry in resignation, Bogdan Bogdanov, before deputies of the parliamentary economic committee.
Bogdanov was answering questions from MPs, including why two private arms companies were included in the list of strategic objects of national security shortly before the cabinet rotation. We are talking about the ammunition dealer “Aheloy” and the manufacturer of explosives “Karash Invest”. According to the Minister of Economy, they would be important in the planning of civilian defense resources in the subsequent stages of the development of the new State Wartime Plan and would contribute to defense and national security in general.
However, GERB and DPS made a remark that the owner of “Karash Invest” is related to another arms company, which is on the US ban list. A reference shows that Karash Invest was acquired in May last year by Hristo Emilianov Gebrev, apparently related to arms businessman Emilian Gebrev, who owns Dunarit and Emco.
“You should address the questions to DANS. They should say whether a company is reliable. From there, they gave us a positive opinion about both companies,” said Minister Bogdanov. He explained that their inclusion in the list of strategic objects will give more security, because they are under the supervision of DANS, which carries out inspections of these objects and the people who manage them. “In recent years, two warehouses exploded and we are still waiting for the results of the investigation,” recalled Bogdanov.
He informed that “Karash Invest” has an investment plan to build a new ammunition factory on the site of its production base in the village of Smyadovo near Shumen.
In addition to private companies, the state arms company VMZ-Sopot also plans to build its own gunpowder production facilities, Bogdanov said. Specific areas are already being studied, there are also proposals for specific technologies and the supply of such equipment, it has also been commented on how much such a plant will cost and what capacity it will have. Bogdanov indicated that a commitment has been made to complete a final report with various proposals for the construction of a state plant for the production of gunpowder by the end of March.
“At the moment, the market and demand is huge, so there will be business for both private and state-owned companies,” commented the Minister of Economy.
The decision on the construction of such a plant by VMZ Sopot will be made by the National Assembly, and the construction will take three to four years. “This means that we have enough time to plan the investment – be it from the VMZ dividend or in another way,” Bogdanov said.
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2024-03-08 01:42:31
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