Bulgaria's Government to Stress Business Support Measures

Bulgaria's Minister of Economy and Energy Dragomir Stoynev, photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's government is launching a new policy aimed at enhancing dialogue with the business sector, according to Economy and Energy Minister Dragomir Stoynev.

Stoynev, as cited by mediapool.bg, made clear Monday that the new policy would put special emphasis on regions.

"Our main goal is to meet with local-level Bulgarian entrepreneurs in order to prepare concrete policies, instead of having Sofia present the policies which businesses implement," he stated.

Stoynev told journalists that he was going to meet large-scale producers from the southern Bulgarian districts of Haskovo and Dimitrovgrad to get acquainted with their needs.

He underscored the importance of implementing a foreign policy in line with the needs of Bulgaria's business sector.

Bulgaria's Economy and Energy Minister explained that the government sought to support businesses in their export activities and to orient companies towards markets characterized by high economic growth and high demand rates.

Drawing attention to the much-debated topic of businesses struggling to find qualified employees, he informed that budget 2014 would be education-oriented.

"We cannot go without concrete education reform which meets the needs of Bulgarian businesses. We need engineers, fitters, welders, but most of all technicians. A growing business sector needs the support of the state," he declared.

"We want to implement a number of pilot projects in order to grant Bulgarian businesses immediate access to well-trained employees," Stoynev said, adding that the Ministry of Economy and Energy, the Education Ministry, and the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy would sign an agreement in September on the introduction of the so-called dual education system under which students at secondary schools would combine studying with working in order to acquire practical skills.