Don Tomlin tapped by Bulgaria
By John Temple Ligon temple@thecolumbiastar.com

(L- R) Rachelle Tomlin, Honorary Consul Don Tomlin, Ambassador Elena Poptodorova, and Congressman Joe Wilson

Congressman Joe Wilson recommended Columbia's Don Tomlin to Bulgaria as its honorary consul in South Carolina. As such, Tomlin is the S.C. diplomat representing the interests of Bulgaria.

The Bulgarian Ambassador to the United States, Elena Poptodorova, commemorated Tomlin's new role under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

Seated next to Tomlin at the luncheon at the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce on March 26 was his wife Rachelle. In the audience was another Bulgarian, Dr. Tatiana Kostova, professor of business at the Moore School. At the table with Dr. Kostova were Dr. Charles Young, president at Allen University, and Melanie Jones, vice president for institutional advancement at Allen University.

Also in the audience, a full room at the chamber's headquarters on Richland Street in Arsenal Hill, was Columbia's Ed O'Donnell, former ambassador for the United States in Panama.

Ambassador Poptodorova invited the audience to visit Bulgaria. She declared the cost of doing business in her country was close to the lowest in Europe, while the education level was about the highest. For the 7.6 million people in Bulgaria, 22% have university degrees.

Allen University President Dr. Charles Young and Vice President for Institutional Advancement Melanie Jones.

Bulgaria is moving forward, but a history of the past 60 years may help explain the present and suggest the future.

In 1947, Bulgaria suffered a violent communist takeover. The communist regime finally collapsed in late 1989, about the time the wall came down in Berlin, but the Bulgarian Communist Party, renamed the Bulgarian Socialist Party, won the country's first free election.

A new constitution was passed in 1991.

During 1996- 97, an economic crisis brought about a victorious election for the anticommunist Union of Democratic Forces.

Due to the 1996- 97 economic crisis, a currency board was introduced with the help of the International Monetary Fund. The currency board should continue until Bulgaria adopts the euro, which could be as late as 2013.

Ed O'Donnell, former US Ambassador to Panama

Since summer 2005, Bulgaria has been operating under a governing coalition which includes the socialists.

Bulgaria entered the European Union last January at the same time as Romania.

For 2007 as a whole, Bulgaria's gross domestic product growth was reportedly about 6%, a little more than half the rate in China and about twice the rate in the United States. The GDP is approaching $40 billion among its 7.6 million people. For S.C.'s 4.4 million people, there is a GDP of about $128 billion. With more than 300 million people, the GDP in the U.S. is $14 trillion.

Consumer price inflation is running a little ahead of 7%, about twice the rate in the U.S.

An enviable number in Bulgaria is its budget surplus, hovering above 5% of GDP; while in the U.S. the budget deficit is almost 3% of GDP.

The Bulgarian tax rates are low. Since the beginning of this year, there is a single 10% rate for personal income tax. For over a year, the tax rate for corporate profits has been fixed at 10%. However, typical for the Europeans, there is also a value-added tax of 20%. The exception to the VAT of 20% is the 7% added to tourism packages sold abroad.

Germany sells the most to Bulgaria, 17.4% of the total imports. And Turkey buys the most from Bulgaria, almost 11% of the total exports.

Tomlin thanked Ambassador Poptodorova and Congressman Wilson and pledged his dedication to his new post as honorary consul.

Ambassador Poptodorova cited the appreciation in Bulgaria for America's current stand against terrorism and her past sacrifices on behalf of world freedom.

The crowd responded with warm applause when they heard Bulgaria has troops participating with the United States in both Iraq and Afghanistan.