At the General Meeting of the Association of the Organizations of Bulgarian Employers (AOBE) held today (11 January 2022), the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) took over from the Association of Industrial Capital in Bulgaria (BICA) the rotating presidency of the Association the Organizations of Bulgarian Employers (AOBE) for 2022 year. In accordance with the established rotation, the chairman of BICA Vasil Velev handed over the chairmanship of AOBE for 2022 to the president of BIA Dobri Mitrev.
Vasil Velev - Chairman of the Board of BICA, Dobri Mitrev - President of the Board of BIA, Vasil Todorov - Secretary General of BCCI, Rumyana Georgieva - Parliamentary Secretary and Head of Sector "Industrial Relations" of KRIB as well as experts from the organizations took part in the first meeting of the year.
AOBE unites the nationally representative employers' organizations BICA, BIA, BCCI and KRIB. The main goal of the organization is to consolidate, balance and represent the interests of its members. Employees in the enterprises that are members of the four employers' organizations represent 82% of all employees in our country, and the gross value added they produce is 86%.
The BICA chairmanship of AOBR in 2021 was considered extremely successful in view of the difficult situation related to the epidemiological situation, the business challenges posed by COVID-19 and the economic crisis resulting from the pandemic and isolation, as well as the drastic increase in energy prices. Despite the challenges, a record number of common positions, declarations and opinions were adopted. During the reporting period, AOBE has developed and presented to the relevant competent institutions 145 positions in the name of protection of business interests, focused mainly on measures to support business in times of economic and energy crisis. Some of the positions were developed in partnership with the nationally representative organizations of employees - CITUB and LC "Podkrepa". Numerous meetings were held with representatives of state institutions - Council of Ministers, National Assembly, President of the Republic of Bulgaria, who presented key issues facing business in the context of the crisis situation.
During today's meeting, AOBE members discussed urgent action to find workable solutions to the crisis caused by the unprecedentedly high prices of natural gas and electricity for non-household consumers. The new design of the measure "60/40" from 01.03.2022 was also discussed, and it was decided to ask the government to establish an interdepartmental working group with the participation of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labor and Social Policy and nationally representative employers' organizations and trade unions to develop adequate regulation on the measure so that it is available to the widest possible range of companies affected by the crisis.
The participants in the meeting discussed the guidelines and priorities of the organization for 2022, which after coordination and approval by members will be officially presented at the traditional press conference of AOBE at the beginning of each year, scheduled for 26 January 2022 at 11.00 in the Press Club of BTA.
