Soros to Cash in on Year 2000 Problem?
Offers to set up software company in Bulgaria
SOFIA -- (Reuters) International financier and philanthropist George Soros has offered to set up a joint software company in Bulgaria employing cheap local talent to work on the millennium bug, a top official said on Tuesday.
"The proposal envisages setting up a joint venture between the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC) and Soros which will carry out orders for large foreign companies in the West," said BTC board chairman Grosdan.
"Mr. Soros is prepared to invest about $3 million to set up a plant in Sofia which will develop software products urgently needed in the West, like the year 2000 problem and euro currency conversion projects," Karadzhov said.
Bulgaria, with a population of just over 8 million people, is known for abundant computer programming talent despite a "brain drain" to the West caused by a shortage of funds and lack of access to new technologies.
Once a center for research and development in computer hardware and software for the former Soviet empire, the Balkan state has some 7,000 experienced software professionals.
Earlier this year the National Laboratory of Computer Virology with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences said it had found a way of dealing with the millennium bug which could cripple computers and cause havoc at the turn of the century.
The millennium bug arose from computer programmers truncating a year to the last two digits to save what was once expensive memory space. However, computers assuming a 19 before every two-digit year will make errors once the new century arrives.
The head of the laboratory has said the cure was found during work to find ways of countering computer viruses many of which originated in Bulgaria.
Karadzhov said the project was due to be discussed by the BTC board shortly. It would give the BTC 15 percent in the joint venture called Rila Software which is to employ some 500 local software experts.
The BTC will pay for its stake with services, traffic, use of telecommunications. It will also provide the plant's premises.
"I hope that in two weeks we will be able to get approval from the board, the Privatization Agency and our privatization consultant Deutsche Morgan Grenfell. Then the company will apply for court registration," Karadzhov said.
Deutsche Morgan Grenfell is brokering for the government the sale of a 51-percent stake in the BTC.
"The project will have a positive impact on BTC operations, but we still need a formal approval," Karadzhov said.
He said one of Soros' reasons for setting up the plant in Bulgaria was expertise and cheap labor force. Programming salaries in Bulgaria are about one-fifth of those in the West, according to the western media.
The local branch of Soros' Open Society international humanitarian foundation, has invested some $38 million in Bulgaria since its creation in 1990.
Reuters, July 1, 1998 |
