Ongian Donev in interview for bTV

Bulgarian market economy is a functioning economy but with some exceptions. That is what Ongian Donev, majority owner of Sopharma and winner of the prize “Mr. Economy 2016”, commented in the studio of the television show “This Sunday”. He noted that business here survives despite “all the attempts of almost all of the political class to be businessmen”.

“There are two economies in the real sector. One creates and preserves jobs, manufactures and contributes to the national income of the state. The other part of the economy requires greenhouse conditions to exist. It can easily be seen who is the lender of last resort and which companies are related to it”, he said.

Unfortunately, our nation seems not to care about economy, it lives in a virtual world due to the low level of understanding of financial issues and the low level of economic knowledge, Donev also said .

Why is “Mr. Economy” being sued for tax evasion? “The court is the place to prove who is right and who is wrong. Everybody in Bulgaria should live with the thought that can be accused of something, especially if he/she is a hindrance to somebody”, answered Donev.

He reminded that his court battle on a charge of money laundring had ended successfully, and he even succeeded in sentencing the public prosecutor. “It is interesting how insistent people are to sentence me before court. Some of the media mention my name 4-5 times a week in various combinations in terms of me being a bad person” noted the businessman.

He was adamant that he does not participate in any arrangements behind the scene with a regular and a caretaker goverment and quotes the current chairman of the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria, Kiril Domuschiev, that it is important for Bulgarian economy to have stability, functionning regulators and competition provided by them which will be the basis of a functioning  market  economy.

Ognian Donev noted that the Health Minister in resignation Petar Moskov has done more harm than good with the tender for drugs worth BGN 1,2 billion: “It is not OK for a minister in resignation to embark on matters of that great significance such as the tender. Another issue is that there should be tenders and the best opportunities should be chosen”.

The chief executive of Sopharma admitted that he is an interested party regarding the tender: Ïf we had no interest, there wouldn’t be a healthcare system in Bulgaria. In every moment our companies finance hospitals in Bulgaria with 100 miln. of deferred payment”.

According to Donev, medicines disappear from the market due to the pressure coming from the National Health Insurance Fund and the Ministry of Health for the prices to decrease. At some point large international companies decide that reduced prices in Bulgaria turning into reference prices for all markets is not profitable for them and this results in a shortage, explained the businessman.

Source: btvnovinite.bg