Hewlett-Packard Bulgaria (HPB) officially withdrew from the Bulgarian Association of Information Technologies (BAIT) on January 24, as previously reported by The Sofia Echo.

Among the main motives of HPB is the fact that BAIT not only does not represent HPB's interests, but also works against the reputation and the name of HPB.

"The association is discrediting significant events in a business and investment context," said HPB general manager Sasha Bezouhanova. In her opinion, the explanation for the withdrawment is that BAIT is serving private and corporate interests. Only 115 of the total 4600 IT companies in Bulgaria are part of the association, she said.

By sending its declaration to the Cabinet and the Commission for the Protection of Competition, BAIT caused the Government to hesitate about its willingness to support HPB's investment project, connected to launching its Global Delivery Centre in the country.

"The public tender for setting up the integration system of the electronic government also had a very selective assessment," said Bezouhanova to the Bulgarian-language daily Pari on January 24. According to her, from six or seven concluded contracts, BAIT was only against that of HPB, which illustrated bias.

"With our withdrawal, we want to draw a line between the double standard policy, which, obviously, is implemented by BAIT," said Bezouhanova. According to HPB management, the IT association works against the interests and the development of the IT industry and limits the possibilities for foreign capital entering Bulgaria.

BAIT chairman Zlatko Zlatkov's reaction was to call HPB's statements untrue. "I categorically deny that we (BAIT) are protecting someone's private interests," he said. "I can also not agree with the statement that we do not protect the foreign companies, as on the BAIT management board currently there are two big international companies - Cisco and Fujitsu Siemens," Zlatkov said. He also said that, according to him, there is not even a single need to comment on the statement that BAIT does not protect industry interests. The huge financial aid requested by HPB would strike a blow to fair competition and is a violation of the Protection of Competition Act, according to BAIT.

HPB's decision was made about a month after the Government's decision to not extend to the company the promised 2.4 million leva for its support centre in the country, after HPB failed to submit the required papers on staff training expenditures in time. HPB was asked for the papers only after signing the contract, Bezouhanova said.

State aid makes up 40 per cent of HPB's total training expenditures, she said, without naming the total sum.