Bulgaria’s economy is among the ones developing fastest, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) administrator Kemal Dervis said.

On April 24 Dervis gave a lecture to students in Sofia University on the topic of social and economic challenges that new EU member states face.

Over the past 15 years Bulgaria achieved significant progress, Dervis said. Some of the successful projects the country managed to carry out are Beautiful Bulgaria and some initiatives from UNDP’s Jobs programme.

Dervis also spoke about the European social and economic model. In the context of globalisation, the European model should deal with increasingly high GDP growth rates worldwide and higher competitiveness.

The European model was successful because of the integration it provided. Bulgaria had the luck to be part of this model. The country could contribute to further integration of countries like Turkey because it had interest in having a strong neighbouring country, Dervis said.