site.btaPlovdiv Hosts Discussion on Bulgaria's OECD Membership Bid

The Diplomatic Institute with the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry is organizing information meetings on Bulgaria's membership in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The first out-of-Sofia forum titled "Cooperation for Regional Development and Growth" was held in Plovdiv Thursday. 

The aim of this and the other discussions to be held across the country is to connect local authorities and institutions working for the OECD membership with the business community and professional organizations. 

In January 2022, Bulgaria and five other countries were invited to join the OECD, and in June of that year this country adopted the accession roadmap, which started the process. Radka Balabanova, Director of the Foreign Relations and Development Cooperation Directorate at the Foreign Ministry, said at the forum that Bulgaria has already prepared a memorandum on the level of allignment of the Bulgarian legislation, policies and practices with all 260-plus OECD legal instruments.

OECD committees are expected to assess this allignment in 25 areas, including environment, education, health, digital economy, financial markets, competition, social policy, public and corporate governance, etc. 15 discussions have already been held on the committee assessments and four positive assessments have come from two working groups to the financial markets committee and two to the fiscal committee. Bulgaria's ambition is to be through with the technical part of the accession - that is the assessment - within three years. 

Among the participants in the forum is Isabelle Chatry, Head Decentralization, Subnational Finance and Infrastructure Unit, CFE, Belgian Ambassador Frederic Meurice, representatives of the Ministries of Regional Development and Public Works, Foreign Affairs and Innovation and Growth, experts from the InvestBulgaria Agency, the Bulgarian Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry – Plovdiv, and the Economic Association - Plovdiv.

The discussion continues on Friday with issues including Energy Strategy and Energy Security.