site.btaAt Economic Cooperation Problem, German Business Outlines Its Problems in Bulgaria

At Economic Cooperation Problem, German Business Outlines Its Problems in Bulgaria

Sofia, June 23 (BTA) - Bulgaria has a lot more to do about the judicial system, transparency, countercorruption, the education reform, and the State's domination in several big economic sectors. All this continues to impede the attraction of foreign investors to the country and stands in the way of companies operating in Bulgaria. This opinion was shared by Bulgarian and German business executives, non-governmental organizations' representatives and diplomats at a forum entitled "Economic Cooperation between Bulgarian and Germany: How to Continue a Business Success Story in Europe," held here on Thursday.

"Progress is rather slow in several spheres, and they hold back the extra investments that could come to Bulgaria and create jobs," Institute for Market Economics Executive Director Svetla Kostadinova commented to BTA.

Listing these spheres, she started with the judicial reform, where "a badly elected new Supreme Judicial Council would predetermine what we can expect from this system further on".

Kostadinova identified as another problem the fact the State still dominates several large economic sectors: rail transport, water supply and sewerage, where privatization is not carried out and the large State-owned companies devour huge public resources. Apart from the enormous budget subsidies that large money-losing State-owned enterprises receive, the State regulates relations in these sectors in a way enabling them to survive, thus killing any competition and preventing the private sector from making inroads and providing people with better services.

Regional disparities are another issue noted by Kostadinova. Sofia is leaving the rest of the regions ever farther behind, while Bourgas, Plovdiv, Varna and Stara Zagora are slightly closing the gap with the capital. This is positive but, in general, huge regions are lagging hopelessly behind what's going on in Sofia, the economist noted.

She does not see an appreciable change in education, either. Teachers' incomes are persistently low and will not increase, mainly due to the chronic failure of reforms in education, Kostadinova argued.

German Ambassador in Sofia Detlef Lingemann said that in recent years Germany has established itself as Bulgaria's most important trading partner. Two-way trade has nearly doubled in ten years, from 3,600 million euro in 2006 to 6,600 million euro in 2016.

Deputy Economic Minister Luchezar Borissov said that the fees for 60 per cent of the services provided by his Ministry and the agencies under it will be reduced, fewer documents will be required, the waiting time will be shortened, and information will be exchanged ex officio. Borissov specified that 187 administrative services and regulations have been analyzed and changes have been proposed for 113 of them: the fees for 67 services will be cut and will be waived altogether for 21 other.