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The Regions This Week
March 23, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Southeast Europe
The trial that could end the political career of Romania’s ruling coalition leader Liviu Dragnea is approaching its conclusion. Witnesses upheld earlier statements in which they said Dragnea had been aware that two civil servants paid from the public purse had actually be working for his Social Democratic Party (PSD).
Slovenia’s central bank governor Bostjan Jazbec said he will quit after receiving death threats, which he thinks are related to the bail-in of local banks several years ago. Jazbec received several threats on his mobile phone, and he informed the police accordingly, the central bank said.
Bulgaria will suspend its usual public procure- ment processes for repairs to the fence along its border with Turkey. The opposition called the move a “golden hole” that opens the way for cor- ruption as repairs to the fence, built to keep out illegal migrants, are carried out.
Turkey will send a drill ship to waters off Cy- prus, potentially worsening a showdown over natural gas and oil deposits. Turkish Presi- dent Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made it plain he is not prepared to let the Greek Cypriots alone exploit the deposits.
The Serbian government has agreed to pay €9.5mn state aid to Continental to support the company’s Centre for Research and Development in Novi Sad. The move angered local IT compa- nies, who said it gives Continental an unfair advantage in the competitive market for tech professionals.
The IMF said the priorities for Albania authori- ties are to advance fiscal consolidation and enhance the efficiency of public investment spending. Currently, Albania is enjoying one of the
fastest economic growth rates in the region with GDP growth projected to reach an estimated 3.9% in 2017 and 3.7% in 2018.
Romania’s government will purchase 2% in the Mangalia shipyard from Daewoo (Daewoo Mangalia Heavy Industries, DMHI) on the Black Sea coast, thus increasing its participation
to 51%. This is the first time since the fall of the communism that the Romanian state has regained majority control of a company.
Russian aircraft company MiG will repair the Bulgarian airforce’s aging fleet of MiG-29s in
a deal worth BGN81mn (€41.4mn). This comes after plans to buy new fighter jets from Gripen were scrapped amid concerns over the procure- ment process.
Bulgaria comes closest to reducing the gender gap in the tech sector among EU members, with women making up 30% of the people working in tech in the country, closely followed by Australia (28%) and Romania (26%), a study from recruiter Honeypot shows. Other CEE countries that also performed strongly on the 2018 Women in Tech Index are Lithuania (in fourth place with 24.93%) and Latvia (sixth, 24.89%).
Demiroren Group, widely seen as a backer of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has entered
into talks to buy all the media assets of Turkish Dogan Holding including widely read respected newspaper Hurriyet and CNN Turk. If the deal – which values the media assets at $1.1bn – goes through it would in the eyes of Erdogan opponents mean the largest independent media organisation in the country that still permits criticism of the president coming under the sway of the country’s leader.