ve and by the need to reduce traditional exports of
consumer goods in short supply on the domestic market. The Soviet Union
continued to be the predominant supplier of raw materials, machinery,
and technical and technological assistance.

To overcome the limitations on industrial expansion, the leadership of
the Bulgarian Communist Party (BKP--see Glossary) and government sought
to raise industrial productivity through concentration and
specialization of production and through improvements in the management
of material and labor resources. Strong emphasis was placed on the
introduction of automation in both production and management processes.
Heavy stress was also laid on the need to raise the quality of
industrial products in order to increase their salability abroad and
their acceptance in the domestic market.

The consolidation of industrial enterprises into a limited number of
trusts, introduced in 1971 as a measure for increased centralized
control in the search for greater efficiency, was being carried forward
by means of further regulatory and clarifying edicts. The leadership's
ultimate goal of an efficiently managed, technologically advanced,
low-cost industry remained the driving force behind all industrial
policy decisions.

ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE

Virtually all industry is state owned. In 1970 state enterprises
possessed 98.6 percent of all industrial assets; they employed 88.8
percent of the industrial work force and produced 89.7 percent of the
industrial output. Collective industrial enterprises owned the balance
of 1.4 percent of the assets, employed 11.2 percent of the workers, and
contributed 9.9 percent of the industrial output. Small private
enterprises, mostly artisan shops, accounted for only 0.4 percent of the
industrial output.

Organization

Size and Location

In 1970 the industrial establishment (excluding the private sector,
information on which is not available) consisted of 1,827 state
enterprises and 644 collective enterprises, employing about 1.02 million
and 129,000 people, respectively. More than one-half of the enterprises
in the state industry employed over 200 people, and almost one-fourth
employed more than 1,000 people. Enterprises with large numbers of
workers predominated in metallurgy; in the glass and china industry; in
clothing manufacture; and in the leather, shoe, and fur industry.
Beginning in 1971 previously independent enterprises were transformed
into b