The Board of Directors of the Bulgarian Industrial Association approved the establishment of a Cybersecurity Advisory Council (BSC) at its meeting. The Council will assist the BIA Board of Directors by issuing opinions and analyzes, proposing regulatory changes and advising members of the Association on the topic of cybersecurity, and the members of the Council will represent BIA in work groups and advisory bodies to government institutions. The Coordinator of the Council will be Yasen Tanev - Chairman of the Board of the Bulgarian Association for Business Software Development (BABSD), member of BIA. Experts from BIA members are invited to participate in the Council.

Bulgaria's contribution to the EU budget in 2021-27 is expected to increase by close to 50%. In the current multiannual budget (2014-2020) Bulgaria pays an average of EUR 460 million annually while the forecast of the European Commission is for this to increase to EUR 680 million (average annual) plus another 90 million which will come mostly from duties which Bulgaria will be charging on behalf of the 27. The increase is largely due to the efforts of the European Commission to compensate the cash gap after Brexit: one way it has figured out is through the national payments for the emission trade scheme and Bulgaria will be affected seriously as it is one of the countries with a large share of coal energy industry. If the proposal is approved (which is not much likely), Bulgaria will end up paying one of the largest contributions to the EU in terms of GDP share, the paper says.

The transfer of equities and shares of companies which give their owner the rights to own real estate will be subject to VAT. This foresees a controversial change to the VAT Act, voted at first reading yesterday by MPs. The amendment is traditionally part of the final and transitional provisions of the amendments to the Corporate Income Tax Act. The purpose of the Ministry of Finance is to stop circumvention of the law, by virtue of which, by professing transactions for the transfer of equities and shares, ownership of real estate intended for residential use is practically transferred, thus avoiding the payment of VAT. Business representatives, however, responded that the text in its current form, do not confine itself to residential property and gives extremely wide rights for subjective judgment and taxation of much of the VAT-exempt transactions in equities and company shares.

Discount chain Lidl Bulgaria, part of Germany's Lidl Stiftung & Co, said its local partners have contributed BGN 24 million of export sales to its turnover in the first seven months of fiscal year 2019 started in March. Lidl Bulgaria expects that by the end of fiscal year 2019 its sales abroad of products made in Bulgaria will reach the level of the previous fiscal year. Last year, Bulgarian companies generated BGN 30 million of export sales in the network of Lidl stores across Europe, marking a 100% annual increase. The discount chain currently exports 112 products of 36 Bulgarian suppliers to 22 European markets. Most of the export sales of Bulgarian products over the past two years have been carried out in Lidl's stores in Romania, Germany, Greece, Poland and Serbia. Some of the new markets where Lidl Bulgaria started to offer the products of its local partners are the UK and Serbia. The stable growth in export sales has been supported mainly by three local partners of Lidl Bulgaria - bread producer Simid, sweet and salty organic snacks producer Smart Organic and Nuhealth, a producer of whole-grain brown rice snacks. Last month, Lidl Bulgaria launched the construction of its 100th store, where it will open about 20 new jobs.

Bulgarian diversified group Synergon Holding said that two of its units have borrowed an additional BGN 2 million from local lender Raiffeisenbank. Synergon Hotels and Synergon Energy increased the size of their loan from Raiffeisenbank to BGN 16 million. The two companies also pledged further assets as collateral. Synergon Holding was set up in 1996 as a privatisation fund under Bulgaria's voucher privatisation programme. The fund was transformed into a holding structure the following year. It has more than 25 subsidiaries and affiliated companies operating in various sectors of the Bulgarian economy.

Bulgaria's Oryahovo municipality signed a BGN 7.3 million contract with local Advance Compost tie-up for design and construction of an installation for pre-treatment of municipal waste and a composting installation for sorted waste. The public procurement procedure for awarding the contract attracted four offers. According to registry agency data, local Raycommerce Construction and Business Advance Team hold stakes of 48% each in the tie-up. RC Design controls the remaining 4%. The project benefits from EU funding under Operational Programme Environment 2014-2020.

The national energy sector is going down despite the profit of the Kozloduy N-plant. The Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) is seeing its first-half loss increase, for the first time ever, and the net loss for january-September reached BGN 22.279 million. This happened despite the record-setting profit of BGN 308 million reported by Kozloduy, which is a BEH daughter company, and the improving finances of Bulgargaz and Bulgartransgaz. The Maritsa East coal-fuelled power plant is BGN 173 million in the red but the pace of loss growth has slowed down. The Energy System Operator reports a decline in profit and the Maritsa East mines are making a loss. BEH also blame the shrinking pre-tax profit (by BGN 177.651 million) with the entry into force of new accounting standards which resulted in a depreciation of the holding company's receivables by over BGN 50 million and a decline in revenues by BGN 23.563 million.

Twenty European banks, backed by the ECB, are working behind the scenes on dodging American Visa, Mastercard or another foreign giant of tech, which has become strategic with the rise of political and commercial tensions. Sheltered behind a code name in the shape of a joke, "PEPSI" - for Pan European Payment System Initiative - these banking institutions, among the most powerful in Europe, have been thinking for some months about the creation of a purely European payment system. , confirmed four sources involved in this project. Carlo Bovero, Head of World Cards and Retail Payments at BNP Paribas, spoke about the initiative Tuesday at a conference organized by Revue Banque, evoking "a very serious project" between banks "which represent a large part of Europe ". Sign of the sensitivity of the case, none of the banking groups solicited by the AFP wished to speak officially on the issue. Nevertheless, according to various sources, only banks from the euro zone countries (Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Spain) are involved in the initiative, including a large part of French banks as well as Deutsche Bank in Germany.

The first trade surplus in petroleum in more than forty years helped the U.S. post a lower trade deficit in September compared to August, but overall U.S. exports and imports in all sectors also declined as trade spats, tariffs, and slowing global growth weighed on trade. For the first time since 1978, the U.S. recorded a surplus in the petroleum trade, at $ 252 million in September, government data showed. The value of petroleum exports stood at US$14.966 billion, while imports were at $ 14.714 billion. Both exports and imports in petroleum products in September were lower than in August, which also contributed to the first surplus in the oil trade in 41 years. The total American deficit in international trade of goods and services fell to $ 52.45 billion in September from $ 55.036 billion in August, with both imports and exports lower in September than in August. Year to date, the largest trade deficit in goods for the U.S. was with China, at $ 263.2 billion, and China was the top country from which America imported goods in the first nine months of 2019.

Samsung Electronics has admitted it is “making adjustments to its operations” in China after several domestic media outlets reported that the company may be considering sacking up to one-third of its staff in the country. A spokesperson for Samsung told Caixin on Tuesday that the company’s China arm was undergoing restructuring owing to “internal and external uncertainties,” fierce competition, and a drive to play a greater role in the Chinese 5G market. The South Korean smartphone giant did not confirm any layoffs or give a timeline for the restructuring initiative, but insisted the move is part of “normal business activities.” For decades, Samsung viewed China as a manufacturing hub, and until recently it was one of the nation’s best-selling smartphone brands. But its smartphone market share has plunged in recent years as it faced competition from homegrown rivals. Last month it shuttered its last remaining production facility in the country, citing rising labor costs and the country’s economic slowdown.