The Vice President of BIA participates in the seventh scientific conference “Economic Challenges 2021: Crisis, Recovery, Sustainability”, organized by UNWE
On 12 November 2021 was held the seventh scientific conference, organized by the Department of Economics on “ECONOMIC CHALLENGES 2021: CRISIS, RECOVERY, SUSTAINABILITY”, under the patronage of the Rector of UNWE Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov.
The conference was opened by Mr. Atanas Pekanov, Deputy Prime Minister for European Funds Management. The forum was attended by prominent scientists and researchers, established professionals, representatives of the executive branch, successful entrepreneurs, students and PhD students. Among the officials was BIA Vice President Maria Mincheva. In her greeting to the participants, she shared the business problems caused by Covid-19. According to Maria Mincheva, the political response to this health crisis will be the subject of scientific research for decades. In her speech, she stressed that for businesses and employers’ organizations, the first months of the crisis were associated with almost round-the-clock effort and work. “Companies had to reorganize their work and employees so as to keep them. Employers’ organizations had to protect as much as possible the ability of their members to maintain their activities. Phones in the Bulgarian Industrial Association literally overheated every day. Although difficult, thanks to the European framework Bulgaria managed to form its immediate response to some extent. Because the health crisis passed extremely quickly into economic and social ones,” Maria Mincheva said.
She said that the enterprises in the field of services, tourism and production were the most affected due to the broken supply chains. Despite the difficulties, in 2021 there is a gradual recovery of enterprises from the same sectors that are returning to pre-crisis levels. “As expected, after the sharp decline, the recovery of economic activity has led to an increase in inflation. In recent months there has been an extraordinary rise in electricity prices, which further complicated things. An additional challenge in recent months is the escalation of the crisis from health, economic and social, political. The lack of a functioning parliament and a political majority to elect a regular government is an additional obstacle to taking fiscal and other measures to manage economic processes, "said the Vice President of BIA and stressed, that political instability has delayed the preparation and submission of the National Plan for Reconstruction and Sustainability and that Bulgaria has failed to meet the deadline of 30 April.
The Vice President of BIA reminded that the caretaker government has undertaken the ambitious task of improving what has been developed so far, but in practice its capabilities have been severely limited. Thus, the improved plan was submitted to the EC in October, and at this stage the prospects are unclear whether Bulgaria still has a chance for approval within this year, which would allow receiving an advance payment of 13 percent.
Ms. Mincheva also said that the lack of a functioning parliament puts the test to welcome the New Year without an adopted state budget and, respectively - without a budget of the State Social Security and the National Health Insurance Fund. There is still no approved partnership agreement to launch the operational programmes (now only programmes) in the next programming period.
“And in this context, it seems that it is time to talk not only about a crisis, but also about recovery. And for sustainable recovery, which goes through transformation and new policies related to the so-called digital and green transition. Topics that seem to be talked about more than done. The lack of a structured approach at the level of strategic planning can be a significant obstacle to the opportunities for economic recovery and development of Bulgaria.
And here I think that the role of the academic community is very important. Reasoned answers to a number of questions are needed, such as what are the right economic policies in the current situation.” With these words, Ms. Mincheva concluded her speech and wished success to the participants in the conference.
The annual conference of the department has established itself as a significant scientific forum over the last decade.
Given the pandemic situation, the conference was held entirely online, with two opportunities to participate - with a report and/or speech.
The presented reports will be published in a collection, and selected papers will be offered for publication in the journal “Scientific Papers” of UNWE, which is indexed in CEEOL, RePec and other data bases.
