The complacency among Bulgaria’s authorities about this country’s continuing image problems is appalling.
A survey by Ernst & Young reported in this issue of The Sofia Echo says that there is a discrepancy between the way foreign investors perceive various countries in the South Eastern European region and the actual amounts of investment. The fact that Bulgaria attracts a larger scale of investment than its outside image would suggest is no reason to be smug. With international and regional competition growing apace, this country has every reason to need to build confidence in its future. Even though the survey suggests that in the next three years Bulgaria’s performance will improve further, it will still be placed behind its northern neighbour and fellow European Union newbie Romania. There should be no reason for this to be the case.
Also in this issue, we report the remarks made by US ambassador John Beyrle listing the factors that militate against healthier growth in US investment in Bulgaria. Among these is corruption. Naturally, this may be partly a matter of perception among potential investors, but along with the other factors listed by Beyrle, such perceptions may be accepted as having some foundation in reality.
It is not as if the treatment of Bulgaria in the foreign media is neutral, and not even as if there is no interest in reporting on the country. Unfortunately, and especially so in some sections of the foreign media more than others, coverage of Bulgaria has been hostile. Sport is made of the country’s shortcomings in areas including the fight against organised crime and corruption and its part in people trafficking networks. This is a grossly unbalanced and unfair portrayal of Bulgaria, but it is the one that is being put forward as contemporary reality.
Bulgaria has taken steps towards improving its image, but these have been too faltering and too few. Shortly before European Union accession, a project initiated by the Government with the support of a group of journalists set about sending out positive news about the country. Such an effort should not be decried, even though it seems to go little beyond bombarding news desks with e-mails, but on its own it is not enough.
Recently, a new head of the State Agency for Tourism has taken office, vowing among other things to look into the effectiveness of how the budget for promoting the country as a tourism destination is spent. At the same time, this country has an InvestBulgaria Agency with the mandate of promoting it as an investment destination, and of course, a Foreign Ministry.
It would seem that the time has long since come for such entities, with their related mandates concerning the image of Bulgaria, to be made to work together and if necessary draw in professional private sector help to build a positive image for Bulgaria abroad.
Such an effort needs to be strategic, systematic, well co-ordinated and well-funded. It must go beyond sights-and-sounds advertisements on international television channels, even though Bulgaria lags behind even in this respect, and must draw on every possible field of endeavour, from hosting influential foreign visitors including journalists, to intelligent and creative international advertising and promotional campaigns, and even, for that matter, to assertive and attractive responses to negative media coverage.
And not to forget, all the while, that even as the team to spin Bulgaria goes to work, elsewhere in Government everyone else should be making sure that reality reinforces an enhanced image for the country.
