The most serious concerns for businesses in Bulgaria in 2024 are due to expectations of price rises and inflation and more spending to increase wages to retain their already scarce staff. The biggest challenges stem from a lack of political predictability, a stable judiciary and investment security, tolerable levels of corruption and a stable regulatory environment to stimulate priority investments. This is what the regular survey of the Bulgarian Industrial Association on the business attitude shows, which this year also includes a new index of the effectiveness of economic policy, said Mariya Mincheva, Vice President of BIA, in an interview for Bloomberg TV Bulgaria.
The new index uses publicly available data and should help prepare constructive proposals for economic policy development and address some of the problems across the country. The three main pillars in it are investment and innovation, institutional environment and reforms in the country, and effectiveness of budget policy, Mincheva said.
"We don't see the economy as a priority - there are almost only a few politicians who talk about the economy and that it is a priority, that we need to increase labour productivity, that we need to introduce new technologies. We don't hear that debate happening at all - we're focused on incomes, but raising incomes goes through raising the competitiveness of the economy."
In the context of the green transition, business in Bulgaria fears a "regulatory tsunami" looming at European and national level. There is an initial low level of awareness of the new regulations, which is increasing over time, and the situation was similar with the introduction of the euro, Mincheva said.
Businesses already see very clearly the benefits for themselves from the introduction of the euro, despite the negative public campaign and the lack of an effective information campaign by the state. More than 60% of the survey respondents already approve of joining the eurozone (down from 47% a year ago), with fewer people unable to judge, Mincheva said.
There is very little interest in public procurement, with "almost no one" planning to participate in it, Mincheva said. There is a feeling among the business community that there is always a predetermined candidate to win these contracts, with some saying it is easier for them to win a contract abroad than in Bulgaria.
Traditional concerns about the availability of well-trained staff can now be addressed by changing the role of education with more dual training as well as a better framework for attracting workers from third countries. The latter will require not only high wages, but also a much broader effort to improve the living environment to enable Bulgaria to compete with other EU countries.
