Radosvet Radev was elected President of the Managing Board
On the 5th of December 2018 in Sofia took place the 15th General Assembly of the Bulgarian Industrial Association – Union of the Bulgarian Business. The Assembly began with a minute’s silence in memory of the long-time President Bojidar Danev, who passed away in May 2018. Mr. Danev devoted 25 years of his life (1993-2018) to the establishment of BIA and its authority on national and international level.
The delegates of the General Assembly adopted the reports of the Managing Board and the Controlling Council for the period 2014-2018, as well as the Budget and Basic Guidelines for BIA’s activity for the period 2019-2023.
According to the Activity Report of BIA for 2014-2018:
- 354 enterprises with over 40 000 employees have been accepted as members and the structure of BIA has been extended by one regional and 12 branch organizations;
- More than 2000 business events took place, incl. three forums within the program of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU, over 100 working discussions with branch organizations, 73 meetings with diplomatic missions from 22 countries, 47 press conferences, etc.;
- More than 20 projects with national and international funding have been implemented;
- More than 250 opinions and standpoints, dozens of analyzes and surveys have been prepared and presented;
- More than 10 000 people have participated in the organized by BIA vocational training courses and seminars;
- More than 4000 specialized online newsletters are distributed, with a total of more than 60 000 subscribers, and over 6500 publications are on the new institutional site of BIA;
- More than 1000 media appearances of representatives and members of BIA have been provided and there are more than 20 000 publications about BIA in the media (16 per day on average);
- In 2016 and 2017 BIA is certified according to the ISO 9001:2015 quality management system and the information security system ISO/IEC 27001: 2013. A personal data protection system has been introduced successfully, as required by the GDPR.
The main efforts of BIA over the last five years have been aimed at reducing the administrative burden, digitalization of public services, cost-orientation of fees, compliance with competition rules, reforms in the basic public systems - energy, education, health, social and health insurance, security and justice, the achievement of a flexible labor market, the provision of quality human resources for the economy, the reduction of corruption and the gray economy.
To fulfill its statutory duties, in support of its members, BIA will continue its activities in five main directions in the next five-year term:
1. Effective protection and representation of members and their common interests at local, municipal, regional, branch, national and international levels;
2. Analysis and consultation of members in the field of labor, social and tax legislation, collective bargaining, protection of competition, public procurement, customs legislation, development of trade activities on Bulgarian and foreign markets, etc.;
3. Supporting the development of human resources through the competence assessment information system MyCompetence and by improving the knowledge, skills and competences of employed and unemployed people;
4. Information provision of members for changes in legislation, good practices in the field of business management, human resource management, finance, environmental requirements, etc.;
5. Ensuring an out-of-court settlement of commercial disputes at the Arbitration Court at BIA.
The National Council of Presidents and the figure of the Executive President were removed from the list of governing bodies of BIA with the amendments approved by the General Assembly. The President of the Managing Board will be responsible for the operational activity of BIA. Another statutory change introduces the status of honorary membership in BIA. The right to be elected as honorary members will have Bulgarian and foreign natural persons with success in the economic, scientific or other sphere and with special merits for the development and the authority of BIA.
The General Assembly elected new members of the Managing Board and the Controlling Council of BIA.
The new Board of Management consists of 19 members, comprising 8 representatives of branch organizations, 7 representatives of companies (including one bank), three representatives of regional business associations and one representative of the scientific community. 7 of the members of the new Board are engineers by profession, six are economists, three lawyers, two financiers and one doctor.
Radosvet Radev, who has been the acting Executive President of BIA since the 19th of June 2018, was elected President of the Managing Board.
