Bulgaria's Economy Minister Vows More Direct Assistance for Businesses by 2020 under Competitiveness OP

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

Economy and Energy Minister Dragomir Stoynev has informed that the emphasis in the new Competitiveness Operational Program would be on securing more direct assistance for Bulgarian businesses.

Speaking Monday during a discussion on the new EU operational programs by 2020, Stoynev made clear that other highlights of the Competitiveness OP included technological innovation, the introduction of international standards, internationalization, and assistance in the sphere of exports.

Stoynev, as cited by the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency, explained that the funding allocated under the new operational program would remain unchanged, at over EUR 1 B, adding that the government had negotiated more money in the spheres where it was most needed.

He also informed that financial engineering would not disappear in the new program but would be preserved as an element of the separate priority axes.

Bulgaria's Economy and Energy Minister pointed out that the aim was to secure simplified, transparent, administrative procedures, and competition between the projects.

He emphasized that the EU funding had to be absorbed in the swiftest and most appropriate way, so that the projects would have a much bigger impact than initially anticipated.

Meanwhile, Deputy Agriculture Minister Yavor Gechev announced that the aim of the Rural Development Program in the period 2014-2020 was to help increase GDP in the sectors it encompassed.

Gechev remarked that agricultural GDP had not increased despite the fact that a lot of funding had already been invested in the sector.

Regarding the Rural Development Program, he said that it concerned a sum of over EUR 2B in EU funding for smaller projects.

He said that the program included a range of social elements as regards regional growth, adding that the aim was to achieve at least a partial narrowing of the differences in the living standards in rural and urban areas.

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