Bulgaria is keen to simplify its system of business licensing but is encountering lots of resistance from its bureaucrats, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev has told a major annual meeting between senior representatives of government and private sector.
Speaking on October 3 at a conference in Sofia organised by Bulgarian newspaper Kapital and German newspaper Handelsblatt, entitled Second Decade of Growth: Risks and Opportunities, Stanishev said that in the past 17 years, Bulgaria had achieved reforms related to “hardware”, meaning institutional reform, and now needed to reform “software” to make the country competitive.
Underlining that the country would continue a policy of fiscal stability and budgetary restraint, Stanishev rejected calls to use the country’s Budget surplus to meet social needs and public sector salary demands.
Even if a decision was made to spend the surplus, within two to three months it would evaporate and there would no long-term solution to the problems, he said.
He listed remaining challenges as including reform of the judiciary, the fight against corruption and simplification of the licensing regime.
On the last point, the administration was resisting reform, but it had to be carried out to make Bulgaria more competitive, Stanishev said.
He called on business to join in efforts to overcome the serious labour shortages in key sectors.
Ivo Prokopiev, chairperson of the Confederation of Employers and Industralists in Bulgaria, said that an important step towards raising the competitiveness of Bulgaria’s economy was through raising productivity.
“Growth of productivity will define whether we are successful state or not, or will remain one of the poorest states in Europe.”
The easing of the tax and social security burden by the Government had enabled a rise in taxable revenue, and the confederation wanted to see a further decrease of the social security burden on employers in mid-2008, Prokopiev said.
Against the background of Bulgaria’s worsening labour market problems, Prokopiev called for measures to encourage young people to stay in the country, to reform the education system to improve its quality, to integrate minorities – especially the Roma – in the education system and in the labour market, and for a “clearly defined” immigration policy.
“We need to overcome the deficit on the market…we need to import highly qualified experts, managers, especially top managers,” he said.