Speaking at a conference in Sofia entitled Second Decade of Growth: Risks and Opportunities, organised by Bulgarian newspaper Kapital and German newspaper Handelsblatt, Labour and Social Policy Minister Emilia Maslarova said the Labour Ministry was striving for a flexible labour market.

The achievement of a flexible market was a problem to be solved by Government and business collectively, she said.

A flexible market would provide alternative employment systems and methods, ensure mobility of the labour force, while increasing training of labour force and provide vocational training.

Since 1998 a law on vocational training had been in effect and so far no vocational training agency had emerged, Maslarova said.

She urged businesses to invest in their intellectual potential. Currently only 4 per cent of revenues were used to this end, she said.

Bulgarian households on averages spent 4 per cent of their disposable budget on education, which is too little, according to Maslarova.

First graders in 2007 were half the number of a generation ago. In the long run this would lead to a problem in labour force supply.

To ensure birthrate goes up, Maslarova said, maternity leave should be extended from the current 2 years to 3 years.