Electricity shortages in the Balkans must be addressed before turning to the more complicated
problems like renewable energy sources and environmentally sound technologies, Bulgarian Economy and Energy Minister Peter Dimitrov told the participants in the annual Roundtable of the CEI Ministers of Economic Sectors, which took place here on Wednesday with the 10th CEI Summit Economic Forum, BTA reports.

Bulgaria is taking resolute action in this connection: the Belene Nuclear Power Plant must be commissioned in 2013-2014, and two major generating facilities, to run on locally mined coal, are under construction. Work is going on on Bulgaria's inter-grid connections with Macedonia and Greece, and an inter-grid connection with Italy is contemplated. The idea is that the region promptly set up the requisite infrastructure and the regional electricity market go into operation.
Dimitrov said that the ministers discussed energy infrastructure as part of the region's accelerated infrastructure development. Thanks to modern technologies, energy resources from Russia, the Caspian Region, Iraq, Iran and Egypt can reach Italy and Central Europe across the seabed of the Black and Adriatic seas. Energy resources thus cheapen since no transit fees have to be paid and the distances are shorter, the Minister noted.

According to estimates quoted at the forum, only Austria has no current account deficit problems. In Bulgaria and most of the Baltic States, the current account deficits exceed 10 per cent of GDP. Dimitrov expects Bulgaria's 2007 current account deficit to top 20 per cent. It will be offset by foreign direct investments.

Dimitrov said that investors show keen interest in the region. At the same time, participants in the forum raised the need to change the investors' profile. The reason is that "dirty and low-tech" industries have settled in many countries of Central and Eastern Europe due to the cheap labour, which does not allow the region to catch up with the EU.

Ambassador Harald Kreid, Director General of the CEI Executive Secretariat, said that at the annual CEI Summit Meeting of Heads of Government, due in Sofia on November 27, 2007, the prime ministers are expected to adopt decisions on a change of the organization's position considering EU enlargement and the appearance of new regional players.

The problems that the CEI Member States must address, stressed by Kreid, include encouragement of innovation. As an example, he that a EU survey conducted in partnership with the CEI found that an average 5 per cent of GDP is spent in the region on research and development. Between 1991 and 2003, Bulgaria had 17 patent applications in information and communication technologies, compared to Austria's 1,300.