More transparent action against the crisis, preservation of macro-economic stability and low tax rates, reduction of social security contribution and, most importantly, institutional guarantees for a fair treatment of businesses in the fight against corruption – this is the consensus among Bulgaria’s business leaders about Bulgaria's new Cabinet, which will be sworn in on July 27 2009.

The economic turmoil is heaping up new troubles on the agenda of the new leadership, adding to pressing problems that have plagued each sector long before the crisis broke.

Thus, easing the social security burden is no more just a measure to improve the business environment and bolster competitiveness but is widely considered as the most powerful weapon against rising unemployment, according to Vassil Velev, head of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA), and Ivo Prokopiev, head of the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria (CEIB) and co-publisher of Dnevnik.

Businesses also said the government should aim at a balanced budget in order to ward off a downward revision of the country’s credit ratings, which would disturb the flow of investments and credit resources into Bulgaria.

Negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and regaining the trust of the European Commission (EC) are essential for Bulgaria’s eurozone entry and for unfreezing the funding under the operational programmes, Prokopiev said.

Curbing the grey economy should be another to priority of the new government, said Kamen Kolev, deputy head of the Bulgarian Industrial Association.

The ongoing slide in tax receipts is not the effect of smaller industrial order intakes but mostly of the proliferating grey sector, Kolev said.

The consensus among business people is that the new ministers should be good experts and administrators, and incoming prime minister Boiko Borissov should guarantee that abuses and incompetence will not be tolerated.

Source: Dnevnik.bg